Chaos
by bobkat2007
Summary: 7th year, Hermione is a Zabini, she's Head Girl, she's dating Draco, owns clubs with Sirius, and has a few other surprises popping up this year. CH 46 up. Woot! Happy New Year!
1. Family

**A/N:** Okay, I've just reposted this chapter, which I'm going to be doing throughout the story, though it'll take a while, to review it and make some small changes. Nothing big though. For first timers, enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** None of it's mine until later when there will be a few of my own original characters.

**Chapter One**

**Family**

Hermione woke up at the sound of her charmed alarm clock beeping incessantly at her telling her to get up. She sat up and surveyed her room. The room she was in was the same one she had woken up in for most of the summer. However, it wasn't until this summer that she had ever seen it. Her gaze landed upon her reflection in the mirror across from her bed and she grinned. Like the room she was in, she had never seen the girl looking back at her until this summer as well. As she studied her appearance she remembered when she had first seen her _real_ reflection and the resulting writing spree in her journal…

_June 18_

_Oh Lord! I never in my wildest dreams imagined any of this. I have no idea where to start. Let's see…well, since Voldemort has finally been destroyed, for good, many people have been reunited with their families…and now I'm one of them. First of all, my parents are not only not my biological parents, but they were never completely ignorant of the wizarding world. They have friends who are witches and wizards! And so my adoptive parents were not only aware of the magical world, but they knew that I was a witch. _

_Apparently my real parents had to give me up for adoption because, at the time, Voldemort was trying to recruit, or blackmail, as many pureblood families into his service as possible. My parents, the Zabinis, related to Blaise Zabini, our dads are brothers, had been able to stay out of range of Voldemort's scope, but they didn't know how much longer they were going to be able to. And when my mother found out she was pregnant with me, my parents began to panic. A child was the perfect thing for Voldemort to use as blackmail. So, they went into hiding and put a glamour on my mother to make it seem that she wasn't pregnant._

_When they found out about my adoptive parents, muggles who knew about magic and were willing to take a magical baby, they knew they had found the perfect people to raise me. They told the Grangers that they would come for me once Voldemort was gone for good. And that time finally came,_

_After they told me all this, I just looked at them. And that's when I realized that I looked nothing like them. Where both my parents have straight black hair, I have loose light brown curls. And my warm brown eyes are nothing like my mother's sparkling emerald eyes or my fathers deep sapphire eyes. And my body was just different. One of the things I noticed was that I really should be taller. I did notice one thing that I had most certainly gotten from my parents. I had their skin. I had my father's clear complexion, both of our faces so smooth it looked like it had always and would always be that way, and I had my mother's coloring. My father's skin was olive toned and my mother's more creamy white. I was a little more tan than my mother though. It seemed as if they knew what I was thinking for no sooner had I finished these thoughts than they explained about another glamour that they had put on me, for my protection, that would make me have the right build and facial features to look like I was a natural child of the Grangers. Then they took the glamour off._

_I still can't get over it. My hair is no longer light brown and curly but jet-black and straight. And because the curls are straight, it added some length so it now hangs just above the waistband of my jeans. I have my father's sapphire eyes. I felt my frame shift. When I went and measured my height I found that I gained two inches, so I am now 5'8". And all the working out that I had been doing, that hadn't seemed to be making any difference what so ever, was now very evident. All of my muscles were well toned and my stomach was nice and flat. I felt my clothes shift on my body as this was happening. My jeans became a little looser and went even lower on my hips, and were now almost too short. My shirt also rode up a little, exposing the tattoo on my lower back at which there were raised eyebrows, and became tighter across my chest (as did my bra). I know this is going to make me sound like a prat, but in Blaise's words (my new found cousin), I look "totally hot". _

_And speaking of Blaise…we stayed up all night talking and getting to know each other. He had come with my parents so that there would be a slightly familiar face. He's really nice and not what I thought. He and his parents are not your typical bigoted pureblood family, which I had really expected, especially since he's best friends with Draco Malfoy. _

_Well, we're getting ready to go to a muggle club; Blaise loves muggles almost as much as Mr. Weasley. He's even got a cell phone. _

_Hermione Danica Zabini_

She grinned again as she remembered that night. That first night had forged a bond between her and Blaise. Though they were cousins, they felt more like a pair of twins, with Blaise just being a tiny bit older. The second night, when they went to the muggle club together for the first time, was the first of many the spent in clubs.

They were going again tonight. But tonight was different. Draco was coming.

**A/N:** Hope you like it!

Kat


	2. Crushes

**A/N:** You know the drill; I'm reposting after editing and such. I'm going to keep all original author's notes for new readers, which will be in italics from now on.

**Disclaimer: **Unfortunately I own nothing but the plot.

Okay, I just realized that I didn't put any kind of authors note on the first chapter. This is my first fic. I've had the idea rolling around in my head forever but I never seemed to have the time, and it should have been up days ago but for some reason the site was being weird. Oh well, its here now. Hope you enjoy…and review.

_Kat_

Previously 

She grinned again as she remembered that night. That first night had forged a bond between her and Blaise. Though they were cousins, they felt more like a pair of twins, with Blaise just being a tiny bit older. The second night, when they went to the muggle club together for the first time, was the first of many the spent in clubs.

**Chapter Two**

**Crushes**

Well, so was Ginny. But she already knew about all the changes and the new family and whatnot. Hermione had told her everything, and even come to her new house to visit and see the changes. The guys hadn't been invited because Mione wanted to shock them. Ginny was very excited for her, and visited often. And Blaise being "a total hottie" had nothing to do with it.

But Draco…he knew nothing. Well, almost nothing. Blaise had pretty much just been told that he now had a cousin. That was all that Hermione let him tell. And Blaise had guessed the reason.

Hermione had a thing for Draco.

And she wanted to see if there was anything there even when he didn't know who she was.

"Mione, that makes no sense."

"Well, it wouldn't to you, Blaise. Just don't tell him anything, okay?"

"Fine."

"Thank you!"

And he hadn't. Now the only reason Blaise even knew about this little crush was because they had been in a park after they had gone out clubbing, and were talking as they walked about everything. And suddenly, Hermione suggests a game called Truth or Dare. Poor Blaise, he didn't know what hit him.

"Okay, I'll ask you first, Blaise. Truth or Dare?"

"What? Truth or dare what? What am I supposed to do?"

"Oh just pick truth."

"Okay, truth."

"Alrighty. Do you like Ginny?"

"WHAT!"

"Do you like Ginny?"

"Why would you ask me that?"

"Cuz I've seen you checkin' her out when you think no one's watching. And you always get excited whenever I say she's gonna be at my house."

"Oh."

"So…."

"'So….' What?"

"So, do you like her?"

"Yes."

"Awesome!"

"Now it's only fair you return the humiliation."

"What?"

"Who do you like?"

"Oh no, you're not gonna get that one out of me. No nono nonono. I don't think so."

"What? Why not? It's not like you like Draco Malfoy or anything?"

"……"

"You DO?"

"STOP LAUGHING! It's not funny! And I didn't laugh at you for your crush on Ginny. I could tell Ron, he'd beat you to a pulp."

That shut Blaise up pretty easily. Mione had told him a couple days previously that Ron may not look like much but when it comes to Ginny, he makes Russell Crowe in _Gladiator _look like a wimp. Of course, Blaise had no idea what she was talking about. So Hermione had introduced him to TV and movies.

"Fine. But since when and why?"

And then she told him things that he thought only he and Dumbledore knew.


	3. Draco's Past

**A/N:** Well, I am getting reposts up faster than updates, hehe!

**Disclaimer:** Mine, mine, mine! Damnit! You caught me! None of its mine!

A/N: Okay, I realized when I looked at the last chapter, that my little dividers didn't show up, so I gotta change something. More of a note at the end of the chapter

_Kat_

Previously 

"Fine. But since when and why?"

And then she told him things that he thought only he and Dumbledore knew.

Chapter Three 

**Draco's Past**

Before last year, Blaise probably would have told his cousin to forget about Draco. But he also felt as if he knew her well enough to know that, before last year, Hermione wouldn't have even thought about him that way anyhow. That's because Draco Malfoy had changed. It all started at the end of 5th year when his father had been caught inside the Department of Mysteries.



Everyone had been shocked by the fact that Voldemort really was back, but not shocked enough to notice that in public, Draco no longer called muggle borns "mudbloods". They were not shocked enough to notice that Draco was much more civil to people. And the few people who he talked to in private were bowled over, he was actually nice to people. Now, nice for Draco Malfoy wasn't, albeit, the same as what nice would be coming from someone else. Nice for Malfoy was, not shoving people in the halls, helping people pick up dropped items in classes, and even helping Neville to stop from melting his potions. However, he did threaten Neville about what would happen if Neville were to tell anyone about the tutoring sessions he was going to give him.

He did have to be careful though. Everyone, including the Slytherins, noticed these changes. When they confronted him about it, he laughed.

"If you haven't noticed, being a complete and total prat hasn't been doing any good the past 5 years."

Silence met these words. No one dared to speak. They hoped what they were hearing wasn't true. Their star was going soft.

"I'm going to try a new approach. Get close to them, and maybe they'll let some stuff spill. You wouldn't believe how well connected some of them are or what some of them are willing to share when I play the victim." Here he added a little puppy dogface to go with his victim act. By now, he was sitting in one of the armchairs by the fire in the Slytherin common room. He had a small audience, those that wanted the details. Once some of the others had heard that he was still evil, having been satisfied by this, left do so some packing. "One of them actually told me that their parents had been tortured and that they had to be raised by other members of their family. They were practically crying. It was great. Honestly though, I hadn't expected it to work this quickly."

After that, the Slytherins had left him alone to his plans. Not only did they leave him alone, they assumed that he was actually passing on some of this information directly to death eaters. They therefore kept him included in everything over the summer. Every death eater party had a guest on the list that everyone was hoping would show up to give them some information on what the good guys were doing. He didn't disappoint.

Well, he did, but they didn't know it. Everything he told them was a complete fabrication. The people he spent time with included Neville (who had willingly let him tell his story, as long as he didn't mention names), Terry Boot and other Ravenclaws, and a select few of the Hufflepuffs who had been willing to hear what he had to say, including Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbot. Most surprising of all was that the Dream Team were among these people. In fact, they were the first he approached when his father was caught. After he convinced then, he went to people they told him he should make peace with. They had actually told him to still be mean to them. Not cruel like he had been, but mean enough so that the Slytherins wouldn't ask about them.

There was only one person who knew the whole story though. And that person was Dumbledore. It had actually been Dumbledore who told Draco to go to Harry, Ron, and Hermione first. Dumbledore was the only one who Draco could tell everything. Not only was he the person that Draco reported what he heard at the parties, he was also Draco's only confidant. Dumbledore accepted Draco.

It was only when the final battle came that Draco revealed himself. When he found out that the death eaters were planning on attacking Hogwarts soon after the Christmas holidays he told Dumbledore immediately. When it came time to fight he did not join the other Slytherins who expected him to fight with them. He actually saved Ginny from Pansy Parkinson who had joined the ranks of the death eaters over the Christmas holidays. Towards the end of the battle, when the castle was in shambles and everyone tired, he saved Hermione from his father.

_So tired, but I have to keep going. Where are Harry and Ron? _Hermione was looking around the hall for Harry and Ron when she heard her name.

"Hermione, watch out!"

She knew that voice. So she turned and thought she was seeing double. Directly behind her was Lucius Malfoy, sneering evilly at her. And to his right she could see Draco's worried face coming closer towards them.

Lucius raised his wand. Whatever curse he was about to hit her with, she didn't know. All she knew was that she couldn't breath. Draco had reached them at the last second and tackled her to the ground. They heard the whistling of the curse as it sped over their heads. Then there was a flash of green light and Lucius Malfoy crumpled to the floor dead. They both looked up and saw Narcissa Malfoy standing over her husband's dead body with her face set in stone. She helped the both of them up, and informed them that it was all over. Harry had finally managed to kill Voldemort. The Prophecy had been fulfilled.

The three of them then went to Dumbledore. He invited them in and told Hermione and Draco what had happened with Harry and Voldemort. When he was done, he asked Hermione to stay. He then told her Draco's story. Including how Narcissa had come to kill her husband. Apparently, Draco wasn't the only one to be set free by Lucius Malfoy being sent to Azkaban. Lucius had made sure that Narcissa couldn't leave the house or contact anyone he would not allow. When she learned of her husband's arrest, she had gone to Dumbledore. Now mother and son were free.

When the story was over, Hermione was silent for a time. And then,

"Why are you telling me all of this?"

"I thought that Mr. Malfoy would need someone who knew his story. Especially, if he is going to be living with them next year. You see, Miss. Granger, you and Mr. Malfoy will be Head Girl and Head Boy next year. And tradition has always had the Heads sharing their own dorm."

I'm going to be Head Girl with Draco Malfoy. And he's been a spy for Dumbledore this whole year. I knew he had changed, but I didn't know that he was actually spying for Dumbledore.

After the battle, Draco had stopped pretending. Albeit he didn't let anyone know who he really was, except for Blaise, but he was different around Hermione. He let her see a bit of his real self when he would let his guard down on occasion. This was what had let Hermione to realize that she had some feelings for him.

When Hermione finished telling all of this to Blaise, he was shocked.

"Does Draco know that you know all of this?"

"No."

"Huh. This year should be interesting."

"To say the least."

_A/N: Thank you so much you guys for your reviews! I'm gonna sound ridiculous, but it really meant a lot to me considering I didn't know how well this was gonna be received. OH and if you want chapters longer than this tell me, but it will take a little longer._

_Kat_


	4. Danica and Mya

**A/N:** Sniffles! This is one of the first chapters that I've had to remove reviews! I still love you all!

A/N: Okay, here is another chapter! HERE'S WHERE THE TITLE OF THE STORY CAME FROM! It's also about one in the morning, hehe! I couldn't sleep so I wrote another chapter! And from now on, my little answers to reviews are going to be at the beginning.

**Previously**

"Does Draco know that you know all of this?"

"No."

"Huh. This year should be interesting."

"To say the least."

Chapter Four 

**Danica and Mya**

Hermione was nervous. This was to be the first time she and Draco would see each other since she found her new family…and new look. She couldn't decide if she should let Blaise tell Draco about her or not.

She was still debating this when Ginny came into her room. Ginny had grown over the past couple years. She was no longer the flat little girl but a slim, slightly curvy, young woman. Her sparkling green eyes were accentuated by the mascara and eyeliner she wore and her no longer flaming, but still red, hair. Her hair, which had grown to be several shades darker had grown to a little above her elbows and was pulled together in one long shining braid. Other than her eyeliner, the only make up she wore was lip gloss. That was all she or Hermione ever wore, as they were both minimalists when it came to makeup. On her body she wore a dark green tank, matching and drawing attention to her stunning eyes, that had a low neckline and ended about three inches above the top of her super low rise jeans and showed off the tattoo on her lower back that she had gotten a few weeks earlier with Mione.



"I don't know Mione. How much is it going to hurt?"

"How should I know, I haven't gotten mine yet. But probably, it's to be expected, it's a tattoo. It wont hurt as much as it should and not for as long because they'll spell the area before and after so it will be numb when they do most of it and so it'll heal faster. Besides, it's not like you've never gotten a tattoo before, and we're celebrating. Not many people could jump a year ahead and you told me that you had always wanted a tattoo on your back."

At the remark about "not like you've never gotten a tattoo before" she smiled and looked at the inside of her left wrist. There was a small Chinese character there that meant "Chaos" (**A/N: This is why the story is called _Chaos_! Well part of the reason but it stems from the tattoos.)** Mione had one too in exactly the same place. Blaise and Draco also had them but on the inside of their right wrists. The two duos had gotten them separately, but for the same reasons. They had gotten them over the holidays two summers before when everyone had finally acknowledged Voldemort's return. They knew that their lives were going to be chaotic during the war and even after. But they also stood as a promise that they had made to themselves and each other: Never let life get boring, make sure there is Chaos.

"Yeah, but it's not like I didn't have help. I would never have managed it if you hadn't caught me looking at your notes and insisted on helping me. And then telling Dumbledore and…"

"That's why I'm getting one too, remember? Now hurry up and pick your design. I've already picked mine."

Since then, Ginny loved telling everyone the story of her new tattoo.

"It's because I got moved up a year so I'm in 7th year with Hermione here, who is the one who helped me manage it."



Ginny saw Hermione over in her closet. She wasn't dressed yet.

"Hey Mione. Why aren't you dressed?"

"I can't decide what to wear. What do I wear?"

Ginny walked over to her panicky friend.

"Mione, relax. Just breathe. Everything's going to be fine. Here, put these on."

"These" were a pair of low slung leather pants that were open, entirely, on the fronts of the legs and held together by the leather cord that crisscrossed dozens of times over the exposed flesh, a black skin tight tube top and a pair of black boots. And now she was ready.

Ginny sent silent thanks to the heavens that her friend hadn't had her meltdown until _after_ she had done her own hair and makeup. Ginny also noted that her friend had calmed done since her arrival. Now she turned to Ginny with a playful smile,

"So, are we ready to go, _Mya_?"

"I don't know, _Danica_, are we?"

They both grinned. When they went out into the muggle world they went by their middle names. No real reason why, they just did.

They walked laughing out of the room and down to the hall, where Blaise and Draco were waiting. Hermione outlined her final plan to Ginny as they went.

"Finally, I though you two had gotten lost or something. Draco this is my cousin-"

"Danica, " Mione cut Blaise off before he could even begin to form a name.

This was part of the plan she had just told Ginny. Mione, I mean _Danica_, had almost lost her never to follow the plan when she saw him. He was just too damn sexy for her own good.

He was wearing a dark blue button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up revealing muscular forearms. The top two buttons of the shirt were undone, and Hermione had a feeling that the shirt would not have been able to stretch across his broad chest if they had been done up. He also wore a faded pair of black jeans. But it was his face, well more his eyes, that made her falter. He had thankfully stopped gelling his hair and it was hanging down in his eyes and framing his face loosely. But his eyes, Merlin's beard, his eyes. His once cold steely eyes were now such a mixture of warms silver and soft blue that one could not determine a particular color.

As soon as the girls stepped into the room those intense eyes snapped onto Danica. As he had come with Blaise and Ginny there was no need to even acknowledge her. As he studied her, he thought about whom the gorgeous body might belong to.

She certainly looks like a Zabini, but Blaise said that there had been a glamour on her so I wouldn't have recognized her immediately, now would I? Name's Danica? Where have I heard that before? I don't buy that that's her real name. She's hiding something. She cut him off too fast. She seems to be very good friends with Ginny. They seem a little too close for them having just started to get to know each other. But Blaise did say that I know her from school. Oh…hey…what's that?

Danica had just reached for the jacket that was hanging on the knob of the hall closet. Draco noticed a small tattoo on the inside of her left wrist. Chaos. The only reason he recognized it was because he had one of his own.

The only other female that I know of with that tattoo is Mione. But why wouldn't she want to tell me. I'll find out if it really is her…

"Mione, you want to hurry it up?"

"Just a…" the rest of her sentence trailed off as she finished pulling on her jacket and slowly turn to face Draco with wide eyes.

"How'd you know…Blaise!" She whirled to gaze fiercely at him.

"I didn't tell him," he said, throwing up his hands, "he probably figured it out, he's not Head Boy for nothing."

"He didn't tell me. I did figure it out. It wasn't that hard. First, you're her best friend and she was way too excited and chummy for you guys to have just started getting to know each other a week ago. Second, Blaise told me that I would know you from school. Third, the way you said your name was Danica just didn't fit. You cut Blaise off and said it way too fast. And, lastly, one word…Chaos. You grabbed your jacket with your left hand and I saw the tattoo. And there's only the four of us that have that tattoo that I know of."

Stunned silence met this speech.

"Oh, and Danica is your middle name. I remember you told me last year that you and Ginny go out to muggle clubs under you middle names. Now can we get going are we just going to stand around all night?"

As soon as Draco had mentioned it being her middle name, Mione had stopped being shocked and grinned. _I can't believe he remembered that._

Ginny and Blaise's mouths stretched into smiles after this and the quartet walked to the fireplace, flooed to the Leaky Cauldron and walked out into muggle London chatting animatedly. Ginny and Blaise talking about this years Quidditch teams and Draco asking Hermione all kinds of questions about her new family.

_**A/N: **yay! Here is the latest chapter. I know I lied, I said we'd get to the club in this chapter, I did didn't I? but that will be next chapter, I promise. How'd you like it? –eager smile- oh and any ideas for stuff at Hogwarts would be great, and **constructive criticism** is always welcome! So hope you enjoyed and please review!_

_Until next time!_

_Kat_


	5. Arriving

**A/N:** Okay so I don't have TOO many things to fix in these chapters, which you know means that after this there are going to be a ton for me to fix!

**Disclaimer: **Everything Harryish doesn't belong to me. The names Danica, Zane and Aubrey belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes and her wonderful books.

_**A/N:** This chapter seems a lot longer than the other chapters, hope you enjoy!_

Kat Previously 

Ginny and Blaise's mouths stretched into smiles after this and the quartet made their way to muggle London chatting animatedly. Ginny and Blaise discussing this year's Quidditch teams and Draco asking Hermione all kinds of questions about her new found family.

Chapter Five 

**Arriving**

"So where are we going?" Draco asked a few minutes later.

"Oh, just a little club Mione discovered last summer and introduced me to earlier this summer. She comes here a lot." Ginny answered him.

"Wow, that was informative," Draco said, voice dripping with sarcasm, "Could you vague that up for me? I want to know about this place."

"Draco, chill," interrupted Blaise, "it's a cool place, I've been there with Mione before."

"Yeah, he decided to be my big brother, instead of my cousin," as Hermione said this she turned to Blaise and laughed. "He decided that none of the guys who approached me would be allowed to dance with me. Of course he never actually had to say a word. We'd be talking and a guy would head over to us and Blaise would just stop talking and start glaring. I almost felt bad. Not one of the guys ever even managed to finish getting out "Wanna dance?" without stuttering horribly.

"What can I say? I have that affect on people." Blaise said laughing.

"I went with them the next time and had to keep Blaise off the guys' backs and explain that she's a regular so most of the guys know her and have danced with her before."

"Yeah, she even told me, and I quote, 'Down boy, she can take care of herself,' and stopped me from glaring by dragging me out of glaring range."

"It was great!" Ginny laughed, "You should have seen his face!"

"I wish I could have. Interrupting Blaise when he's glaring? You're brave," he said looking at Ginny. "I wouldn't have dared. But why'd these guys come up to you in the first place if they saw you were with a guy?" He directed this question at Hermione.

"Blaise isn't the first guy I've taken to that club by a long shot," she grinned playfully and added, "he's not even the first non-date type guy I've taken there. And I tend to act a little bit different with dates then I am with brother types."

This last part was said rather cryptically and Draco found himself wondering at the difference in the way she acted with the two types of guys.

"Really?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow, "How so?"

Hermione grinned and said, "Oh, look, we're here."

_-Hmm, convenient that. I wonder why she didn't answer the question. -_

They had come upon an easily overlooked door that seemed to lead down to an underground hallway. The sign read **Silver** in a very elegant script but at the same time, the sign was so nondescript that if he hadn't known better, Draco would have thought that the sign was just to advertise that a person named Silver lived there.

Ginny said a short spell then turned and gave both Blaise and Hermione something. Hermione then in turn, turned towards Draco.

"Give me your hand."

"Huh?"

"To get in we have to be wearing a certain kind of silver. The pieces have a certain kind of gem on them so that we're allowed in. Now give me your hand!" This last part was said commandingly and Draco could tell that she didn't want to be out here any longer than she had to be.

"Fine!" And she slipped a heavy ring onto his right hand ring finger. "What's the rush?"

"We're not supposed to just stand out here. Now come on. When we get to the door, show the bouncer the ring."

"Bouncer?"

"Doorman."

"Right."

As she led him down the stairs after Blaise and Ginny, he looked at the ring on his finger. The ring was made, of course, of silver. It was rather large (**A/N think guy's high school class rings**) and a large smooth circular stone sat in the middle of the ring. The stone was a silver blue that seemed to match his eyes perfectly.

He looked at Hermione's and noticed that hers was more intricate and that it too seemed to perfectly match her eyes. The stone, a sapphire marquis, was centered between two Celtic triads. And, or course, everything but the stone was silver. He also noted the necklace, which she hadn't been wearing before, which matcher her ring perfectly, except that the stone was circular and the entire thing was on a slightly larger scale.

It was as he was looking at the necklace that Hermione reached her left hand up and swiped her hair behind both ears. She wore a ring on her middle finger. It was silver, of course, and the gem, a sapphire heart was centered between two silver hands and topped with a silver crown. It was a claddagh ring.

-I wonder if she knows what it means. But how interesting, if she knows how to wear it, it looks like none of those dates turned out to be anything more. -

For he had noticed that she wore the point of the heart away from her, meaning that her heart didn't belong to anyone.

(**A/N**-I got the whole claddagh description from _Buffy_)

He looked at Ginny and noticed that she too had the Celtic triad ring, but hers had a bright emerald. She also wore a necklace but he noticed that it was just the stone and that it seemed to be new.

Blaise just had a ring. The stone, as in Mione's case, was a very deep sapphire but was circular like Draco's. The Celtic triad on either side of the stone was not complete however, each side was missing a third.

"Uh, Hermione?"

"You want to know about the rings and necklaces, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"The club is both muggle and wizard, and is owned by a wizard. Not just any wizard in fact, Sirius Black. That's why we're allowed in, even though we're underage.

"Sirius Black? That's Potter's godfather right? And the guy that Peter Pettigrew had framed for the Potter's and those 13 muggle's murders, right?"

"Right, so when Peter was caught, Sirius was able to come out to be a free man."

"That still doesn't explain the rings."

"Well, since the majority of wizards don't have muggle ID to get in, the jewelry serves the same purpose. When a group of wizards come, the first to go by the sign says a simple spell and that person receives the rings and such for the entire group. The stones are spelled to match the intended person's eyes so that they can get in."

"But then why are your rings different and why do you and Ginny have necklaces?"

"It's a way for Sirius to gauge how popular the club is and if people keep coming back. Your first visit, you get the ring, girls get a marquis cut and guys a solitaire. Then each time you come after that, part of the triad is added to each side. So the fifth time you come, girls get the necklace and the same process starts again, guys get a chain, then a pendant. The pendent grows a little bit each time you come till it's about the size of a sickle. When you've got that finished, you start a claddagh ring, which when its finished you get to keep it, and by that time you're pretty much a regular."

"I see. So how many times have you been here?"

She laughed and answered, "I've lost count! I come here almost every night during the summers and holidays that I don't stay at school. Sometimes just for a single dance."

They were interrupted by the deep voice of the guard and the muffled music coming through the heavy door.

"ID?"

Each of them held their rings up to their eyes in turn and the bouncer was about to open the door when he said, "Welcome back, Miss Danica. Mr. Black says he'd love to see you and your friends."

"Thanks Zane. Will do. Do you know where he is?"

"I believe he is at the bar."

"Alright. Later Zane."

"Have fun."

And with that they entered into the semi-dark club. Along the back wall was a long bar that stretched the length of the wall. The other 3 walls were lined with semi-circle booths starting from right beside the door, to the end of the bar. The booths were black with silver tables. About half of them were occupied and the people sitting there were either talking or watching the throng of moving bodies on the dance floor.

The four of them hooked their arms and started pushing the crowd in the general direction of the bar. It was a few minutes before they made it.

"Sirius!" she called as she immediately started towards the middle of the bar where a smiling man was sitting, looking at his watch. He turned at the sound of his name and got up as they approached. Mione released Draco's hand and launched herself into Sirius's waiting arms.

"How are you **Danica**?"

"I'm good Sirius, I'm really good."

He glanced at the group behind her and whispered, as he saw, and immediately recognized Draco.

"Yeah, now I know why," for he had heard all about what he had done during the war from her, and his mother.

She pulled away laughing and hit him on the arm. He feigned immense pain and pouted…for about 2 seconds before grinning and asking, "I see you have your hands full, shall I let everyone know to stay away tonight."

He had been watching Draco as he said this, who had in turn been watching Mione. At these words Sirius noted the tiniest glimpse of hope in his eyes. But the next second he was sure he had imagined it, and Hermione answered, "Hell no, I wanna see my boys. So…how 'bout a round?"

"Aubrey? You heard the lady, a round of whatever they want, and you know the rules where she's concerned."

Mione grinned at these words and turned to take a swig from the beer that had been placed before her.

Sirius told them to have fun and that he'd see them later.

"Oh yeah, you got yourself a date, don't you?"

And to Draco's utter confusion she looked at him while saying this.

"Yes, I do. I'll see you later."

"Have fun."

And with that he was gone.

They four sat at the bar, sipping their drinks. Draco finished his before her and waited for her to finish. Just as he was about to ask if she wanted to dance, a lanky red head, who, at first glance could have been a Weasley, came up to her and asked her. He must have been a muggle because Draco couldn't see a ring or anything.

She must have sensed his disappointment because she put her hand on his leg and said, "Don't worry, you'll get your chance."

And left.

_**A/N-**Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Hope you all like the chapter. You'll see why Sirius isn't dead in the next chapter. And remember the Chaos tattoos that all four have? **I need an idea for something magical to happen to the tattoos!** Very very important! I just can't figure out what I want them to do! **HELP!** Cyber-cookie to anyone who gives me an idea!_

_Kat_


	6. Silver

**A/N:** For any newbies, you'll notice that nowhere does it say Hermione's jacket is leather in a previous chapter, but as I decided to leave all my previous notes…I changed the chapter that had the jacket leather. Ah the power!

**Disclaimer:** Not mine, well the substandard plot is. The song is _Woman_ by Maroon 5 from the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack.

_**A/N:** And…to suit my evil selfish purposes…Hermione's jacket is no longer leather to match her pants. But first thanks to…_

Previously 

She must have sensed his disappointment because she put her hand on his leg and said, "Don't worry, you'll get your chance."

And left.

**Chapter Six **

**Silver**

Oh and this chapter is Sirius' point of view of most of the last chapter

"Tell Danica to bring her friends and to find me, Zane, I'll be at the bar." With that he turned and put the strange muggle contraption called a cell phone back in his pocket, picked his drink up off the bar and turned to survey the crowd.

He wanted to see this new person with Hermione. The spell that Ginny had performed had let Sirius know that 4 wizards would be entering his club in a few moments, and Hermione had told him she was coming tonight with 3 of her friends.

The spell, which had been Hermione's idea, was placed on the sign and a watch that Sirius always wore. When someone said the spell, the face of the watch revealed the number of people and how many times they had been there…up to a point. He pressed one of the small buttons on the side of the watch. Then this group said the spell the watch displayed a shot of the alley (it had been taken from a small enchanted stone that served as the dot of the eye when the spell had been performed) and four people, but all that could be seen of the fourth person was a hand and a shoe.

Sirius knew who the others would be just by the hair. He pressed another of the buttons. The display changed to that of Ginny's ring and necklace. He pressed it again, and saw Blaise's ring, and third time and Hermione's claddagh ring flashed onto the display. And a fourth time and saw Draco's plain ring.

"Sirius!"

He was pulled out of his reverie by Hermione's voice and smiled. She was many things to him, daughter, sister, friend and savior. He owed her everything. It had been her who had found the way back from beyond the veil. It hadn't been until she had threatened to blackmail some very important people that she found the only way of returning.

It had been someone from the Department of Mysteries, she didn't even know the name of the person she had blackmailed Fudge into ordering to help her.

1st- it had to be a person who's time to die had not yet come

2nd- the person had to have at least three people that would tie him to the world

3rd- it had to be done on any day other than the day of the person's death or birth

4th- the complex magic had to be done by one person, and that person would serve as an anchor to the world for the rest the person's time on earth

Hermione actually used Divination, and went to Firenz who had detected an unbalance, and when Hermione told him of Sirius' death, he was ill at ease.

"An early death? He went beyond the veil?"

"Yes! So it wasn't his time?"

"No. The stars foretold a time of war, but the deaths were not to start according to my predictions."

And then she rushed out.

She approached Dumbledore and asked him to be the anchor. He told her that only she could be the anchor for she alone had been the one to find the spell, but he would be a tie.

She next went to Lupin. After having Hermione thoroughly explain it he agreed.

Harry was last, but before she approached him she looked over the magic to be sure she could do it. She went to him only four weeks into the holidays at Grimmauld Place, in his room where he sat brooding.

"Harry?"

Grunt

"Can I come in?"

Grunt

She slowly entered the dark room to find Harry sitting on his window with his knees drawn up to his chin.

"Harry."

He didn't look at her. When she next spoke she used her firmest, most angry-teacher like voice she had, "Harry, you need to look me in the eyes so you understand what I'm about to tell you and show you."

He slowly turned to look at her.

"What?"

She answered him slowly and clearly, so that he would understand every word.

"I found a way for us to bring Sirius back."

He was silent for several moments, then, "What?"

"I found a way to bring him back, I brought my notes to show you, I know we can do it. Dumbledore and Lupin have already said they would help, but I didn't tell you earlier because I wanted to make sure it would work." She said all this very fast so that it took Harry a minute to process it.

"Show me."

She gave him all her notes.

They had the original information that she had been told. Then the original made more specific to Sirius.

Sirius must have been destined to live longer; it must have been a time before his death was meant to be

The spell had to be done on any day that was not Sirius's day of death or birthday

There must be 4 people to do the spell

Three are ties to the world

Harry

Lupin

Me Dumbledore

The fourth is the caster and will anchor Sirius's soul to theirs

Dumbledore Me

The bond created by the three is not as strong as that of the anchor

The incantation;

From the beyond we call to you,

To rejoin the world to which you belong.

We who are gathered here,

Will help you to rebuild.

And I will anchor your soul,

Until the end of time.

_(**A/N:** don't laugh too hard at my rather poor attempt at the spell)_

He looked at her.

"Will this work?"

"Yes." Hermione said firmly.

"Why are you the anchor? Why not me?"

"Dumbledore said that since I was the one to find it and do the translating, then I was the only one who could do it."

"When can we do it?"

"Whenever you're ready."

"Now."

"We can't do it now, we do have to prepare, we'll do it tomorrow."

They did it the next day. It worked. Now here he was, a year later, and celebrating life everyday. He was a free man, and he had his very own club. He employed wizards for his bar and doormen.

Hermione was the only one who he would let order alcohol. Her friends were allowed to have it, but she had to be responsible for them, and she had to be with them when they ordered.

They talked for a few minutes and he noticed the boy, who he recognized as Draco Malfoy. He'd heard her talk about him before. He also knew she'd want to make him jealous.

"I see you have your hands full. Shall I tell everyone to stay away tonight?"

"Hell no, I want to see my boys. So, how bout a round?"

"Aubrey? You heard the lady, a round of whatever they want, and you know the rules where she's concerned."

"Oh yeah, you got yourself a date, don't you."

He noticed her look to Draco.

"Yes, I do. I'll see you later."

"Have fun."

And he did.

He returned late that night and noticed that the group still hadn't left. And from the look on Draco's face, he hadn't gotten a dance yet either. He grinned, and walked over to him.

"So how's it goin'?"

"Badly," Draco answered, mid-brood.

"Let me guess, Mione's been dancing with one guy after another barely sparing you a glance?"

Draco gaped at him.

"It happens all the time. Don't worry. She'll give you a dance. You just got to take it."

"How? I never get a chance to!"

"Want some help? I had the same trouble as you, but on opening night. I couldn't even get a dance with my business partner!"

"Your what?" Draco asked amazedly.

"She didn't tell you? She's the one who helped me set this place up. I also signed her name on all of the papers. The club's to go to her when I decide I've had enough. But do you want the help or not?"

"Uh…yeah. What do I do?"

"Follow me."

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to take a break for a few minutes, to clean the floor." The DJ made the announcement and the floor was abandoned.

"Does that work?"

"You'd be surprised how filthy that floor can get, we do it once a night anyway. Now before the music starts again, I'll give you a heads up, and make sure you ask her then."

"Okay, I got it."

A few minutes later Sirius gave him the sign and the music started up and another guy was heading towards Mione…simultaneously. Draco got to his feet, bowed, held his hand out to Mione and said, "May I have the honor of this dance?"

"But of course," Hermione replied grinning.

Only Draco noticed the scowl of the young man who had been planning on asking Danica to dance.

The song started to get louder.

If I be so inclined to climb up beside you, Would you tell me that the time just wasn't right? 

Draco and Mione were dancing close together and something about the way each of them was moving was driving the other crazy.

And if I should find the key you hide so well, 

_Would you tell me that I could spend the night?_

The duo continued not noticing the huge grins on Ginny and Blaise's faces who were dancing together as well not far from them.

Leavin' your smell on my coat, 

_Leavin' your taste on my shoulder,_

_I still don't understand_

_What it is about this woman._

Draco thought that no truer words had ever been put into song.

They danced together the rest of the night. After the first five guys trying to get in between them and Danica ignoring them and Draco glaring at them, a glare even Blaise wouldn't have been able to manage, they left them alone.

The crowd started to thin, and the quartet went back to their booth to get their jackets. They said goodbye to Sirius and left. The four walked side-by-side, Blaise, Ginny, Mione, Draco, down the street towards The Leaky Cauldron.

Draco noticed Hermione start to shiver, and for the first time realized that her jacket, which he had thought to be more, was really just a thin cotton jacket. He shrugged off his leather jacket and put it around her. She looked at him and smiled and he noted that she had already slid her arms into the sleeves and was hugging it too herself. He smiled back at her and took her hand.

They all went back to Hermione's house, as it was so early in the morning they didn't want to wake up their parents, they had all left notes or notice with their parents that they would probably be out all night anyway.

Draco woke up first. He got up from his very comfortable position on the couch in her room, and looked around. He saw Hermione in her bed, as was Ginny. Blaise had taken the other couch. He walked to Hermione's side of the bed and looked at her. She was so calm. He kissed her forehead, left a note that he had gone home and for her to keep his jacket.

He didn't notice her smile and open one eye as he left.

_**A/N: **So did ya like it? Then review! Even if you didn't. I'll try to update soon, but I've got a ton of work to do so it may be awhile._


	7. Interlude aka Big Cats Little Dragons

**A/N:** You know the drill by now, I hope. This is a repost not a new chap.

**Disclaimer:** I own all that I have.

_**A/N: **Thanks to everyone who reviewed and likes my story! This one is really short, an interlude of sorts. I've been watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and who else loves when they're in the hospital wing and Mione slaps Harry's hand out of the way when they are about to use the time turner. I just love it! _

Previously 

Draco woke up first. He got up from his very comfortable positions on the couch in her room, and looked around. He saw Hermione in her bed, as was Ginny. Blaise had taken the other couch. He walked to Hermione's side of the bed and looked at her. She was so calm. He kissed her forehead, left a note that he had gone home and for her to keep his jacket.

He didn't notice her smile and open one eye as he left.

Chapter Seven Interlude aka Big Cats and Little Dragons 

When she heard the door close, Hermione got out of bed and padded noiselessly to the door and peeked through the crack, Draco was headed for the bathroom she had shown him last night.

She grinned mischievously and went back in the room.

A moment later a large panther walked out of the room. If one didn't know better, one would think the panther was smiling. It stalked out into the hall and headed in the same direction as Draco. When it reached the bathroom, it peeked just its abnormal silver eyes around the edge of the door and saw Draco splashing water on his face. It slowly withdrew its head.

Draco walked out of the bathroom and down the hall. He rather thought he heard someone following him but when he turned to look no one was there.

When he got to the main fireplace in the front hall, the one used for flooing, he heard a soft growl. He spun around and found a large black panther looking at him from just a few feet away.

He was frozen in his place as the panther approached him. It took him several long seconds to remember than he was just as dangerous as this panther.

In the blink of an eye Draco had become a large, dark green dragon. The term large is used loosely. He wasn't even half the size of a real dragon and he was only slightly larger than the panther in front of him. What made him look bigger though was the long tail and huge leathery wings protruding from his back.

He reared onto his back legs spreading his wings wide and locking his eyes, which were, oddly, their normal silver, with the panther's eyes, which were not the normal hazel of a panther but silver like his. The panther yawned as if it was bored, and Draco noticed that the panther's teeth were silver as well.

And then the panther rose on its back legs as well but didn't stop and suddenly the front legs reached up and the fur disappeared and turned into slightly tanned arms stretching over a head that was now furless as well. In the span of half a second the panther had turned into a stretching Hermione. She continued her stretch, which Draco noticed was rather…cat like.

Draco too transformed back into himself and stared at her stunned.

"Morning," she said.

She didn't seem to be stunned at his being an Animagus; she actually seemed to have been expecting it.

"A dragon, huh? Should have known. Draco…dragon, duh. What's your special marking?"

"Uh it's a, the silver line down my spine. It's the same as the line down the back of the tattoo I have at the base of my neck. What about you?"

"Same here, the markings being the same as my tattoo I mean. It's the eyes and teeth, they're silver."

"Where's your tattoo?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

Draco was silent for a moment, and then asked the real question that had been bothering him.

"But how did you know I was an Animagus?"

"Well, you remember the paper we did on Animagi at the end of last year in Transfiguration? The one where you and I were the only ones who got full marks, not to mention extra credit for information that only someone who has experienced it or talked to in depth with an Animagus would know. And, as I asked you if you knew an Animagus that would leave the first option, which was that you, yourself, are an Animagus."

"Oh, well, that explains it."

"How come you weren't going to stay for breakfast?"

"Mum, I told her I'd be back early if not before. I don't want her to be worried."

"Oh, okay, go then. I'll see you later," and she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before turning to go wake Ginny and Blaise.

_**A/N: **So…how did you like it? The whole Animagus thing is going to become part of the story later, so I figured I might as well introduce it now. Not the longest, by far, but it got the job done (**thank you secretspells311)** so go review and hopefully the next chapter will be up soon!_

_Kat_


	8. Diagon Alley

**A/N: **Yeah, so…I hope you all like it, yeah.

**Disclaimer:** I am my own. The broom was named for my first reviewer. And that's it.

_**A/N:** everyone just wait…we'll see more of the Animagi later in the story if it goes the way I'm planning on._

Previously 

"How come you weren't going to stay for breakfast?"

"Mum, I told her I'd be back early if not before. I don't want her to be worried."

"Oh, okay, go then. I'll see you later," and she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before turning to go wake Ginny and Blaise.

Chapter Eight 

**Diagon Alley**

"Hermione, darling, you need to get going or you're going to be late."

"Alright, I'll be right down. Could you go ahead and flag down the Knight Bus?"

"Sure."

Hermione picked up her purse, levitated her trunks and walked out of her room down a couple hallways and out the front door. The Knight Bus was already there and her mother was speaking to the conductor.

When she came out to the bus, Stan took her things and got them situated at the back of the bus next to a few other trunks. She said goodbye to her mother and Stan ushered her into the bus. But before she made it on her mother stopped her.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I noticed that you don't have an owl of your own, and thought you might like to get one while your in Diagon Alley. So here are a few extra Galleons. And here's the order form that you'll need to get your brooms."

"Thanks! I will, and I felt so bad when she thought that I had forgotten her birthday that I almost told Ginny about my getting her a broom."

"Yes, well have a good year. And send us a letter with your new owl when you get there."

"I will, on both counts."

And with that she boarded the bus and headed towards the only other occupant. It was a tall person with silver blonde hair, which could only belong to Draco. He had his nose buried in some book or magazine. She crept up behind him and saw that he was looking at the latest edition of _Which Broomstick_. He was currently looking at the new International Standard broom, the SilverWolf.

"It's a beauty, isn't it?"

He jumped about a foot into the air. She laughed and moved to the chair next to him.

"Yeah, it is," he said grinning. "But since when are you interested in brooms? I thought you didn't like Quidditch. And I didn't think you would be on here, I figured you would Floo."

"Well, I have a stop to make at Diagon Alley first and I got Ginny a new broom for her birthday. And I got her a SilverWolf. I've never really gotten her any real presents before so this is kinda a cumulative gift. And I always loved Quidditch, but I pretended I didn't because I wasn't good at flying. But when Blaise is your cousin, it's not an option to not know how to fly."

They both laughed at this last bit.

"Well, I know what you mean about Blaise, and I know Ginny will love the broom. How was the rest of your summer?"

"Great! I've been getting to know mum and dad and Blaise and other obscure family members. How 'bout you?"

"Ah," he said noncommittally, "it was alright, I guess. My mom kept trying to get me to go out on dates with her friends' daughters. At first I did just to please her, but then after I went out with a girl I had had my sights on at school, I wouldn't go anymore."

Hermione felt her heart sink and skip a beat simultaneously, "Oh, really?"

"Yeah we went to a muggle and wizard club in London with two friends."

Wait a minute… 

"And we danced all night. And she had connections," he added this last part with a shifty eye, glancing sideways out of the corner of his eye.

That would be ME! 

"And who was this mystery gal?" she asked slyly.

"DIAGON ALLEY!"

Draco smirked, closed the magazine, stood up and offered Hermione his arm, "Shall we?"

"Indeed," she answered while taking the offered arm.

"So where are we off to first, milady?"

"First is Flourish and Blotts, my good sir."

They stepped off the bus and through the Leaky Cauldron and out into Diagon Alley still linked at the elbow. About halfway to Diagon Alley a voice stopped them, "Malfoy! Oy! Malfoy! Hold up a second!"

They turned to see Blaise, Ginny, Ron and Harry. The latter two were hailing to him looking interestedly at Mione.

With a quick look to Blaise and Ginny, they knew that they had honored Mione's request to not have the boys informed until Hogwarts about Mione's new look. They knew about her new family however. She hadn't been able to keep that from then when the Weasley's had asked her to spend a few weeks at the Burrow.

"I'll meet you in the Apothecary in twenty minutes. Just tell them that my name is Danica, they don't know that my middle name, and that I'm a new transfer student. Just don't say anything about me specifically. Say you met me on the Knight Bus and that I'm going early so the Professors can have me sorted and figure things out with me."

"Okay, I'll see you in twenty minutes."

He watched her walk away down the cobbled street noticed the sway of her hips. The sway that was accentuated by the countering sway of her short jean skirt. He also couldn't help but notice that her legs were very long, very toned and very tan. They were also ended in bare feet clad in sandals with, what seemed to him, impossibly skinny heels. Her hair swayed somewhat as well, and you could catch glimpses of her tattoo between the loose strands every so often.

Draco turned and saw Blaise and Ginny barely managing to stifle their laughter. He followed their gaze and saw Harry and Ron also watching after her, but they both had their heads tilted to one side and their mouths were slightly open. They seemed mesmerized by the way of her hips.

"I hope I didn't look like that a second ago," Draco said laughing out loud.

And with that Ginny and Blaise were lost, and Ron and Harry quickly shut their mouths and looked at Draco.

"Who the bloody hell is she?" Ron asked.

Draco smirked, "Her name is Danica, she's a new transfer student to Hogwarts, she's going early so the professors can sort her and figure out what year she will be in. I just met her on the Knight Bus."

They started talking about Quidditch only stopping when he realized that he needed to go meet Hermione.

"Well, it's been lovely chatting, but I must go meet Danica, she's just helpless in a new place." This last bit was said while shooting a wink at Ginny and Blaise.



Meanwhile, Mione had gone into Flourish and Blotts to get her and Draco's new books and a book on how to charm muggle objects to work in highly magical areas like Hogwarts. After that she headed to the Apothecary to meet Draco.

"I saved you a trip to Flourish and Blotts. Here are your new books. And now I just have to go across the street to get an owl."

She had said all this to Draco as she walked up to him in the store and handed him the bag. They moved out of the store and into Eeylop's Owl Emporium.

"Brilliant, I need to get a new owl too, my eagle owl died over the summer."

They headed into the store and started looking at the owls. Hermione noticed that one set of large silver green eyes were staring at her. She turned and saw a gorgeous owl sitting across the room watching her. The owl was jet black and had sleek feathers. It hooted when she crossed to it and immediately nipped affectionately at her fingers as soon as she brought them up. Mione picked the owl up and went to find Draco.

Draco had been looking at the owls and found a handsome mahogany colored owl with amber eyes. One eye was open the other closed. He approached it and the other eye opened, and stared at him. Draco picked this owl up and went to find Mione.

As a result, the two ended up crashing into each other and almost falling to the ground. But they recovered themselves in time to keep from falling. They recovered their balance and made their way to the clerk. Draco insisted on paying for Hermione's owl since she had bought him his books. After futilely trying to pay him back, she gave up.

"Okay, I've only got two more stops to make. Anything else you need to do?"

"No, but I'd like to go to Quality Quidditch Supplies."

"Well why don't we do that first then the other?"

"Sounds good. This way." And he led her towards the shop.

As soon as they walked in the store, a rather young wizard rushed up to them, "Welcome back, Miss Zabini, I have your order ready in the back."

"Look around while I go get my stuff and pay, but I'm going to need your help carrying everything."

Draco was off before she finished and she followed the wizard to the back of the store.

They left the store a half hour later. Mione had 2 parts to the order. The first was for Hogwarts. They needed a new set of game balls and Hermione had dealt with it upon Madame Hooch's request. The other consisted of two SilverWolf brooms (which weren't even supposed to be on the market yet). One for Ginny and one for her, which had shocked Draco. Blaise had taught her well and she was going to go out for the team. Blaise had told her she should be a seeker, and could be if she were in any house other than Gryffindor. He had even said that he had only seen that kind of natural talent in two other people; Harry and Draco. He told her that she might even be able to beat Harry with the right amount of training. But she had told him that she didn't want to be a seeker, way too much pressure and had always like the position of Chaser best anyways. She also had some standard Quidditch gear.

Draco was so jealous that he reminded Hermione of a little boy whose best friend had gotten a new broom. He also made her promise to let him have a go on it.

He was still staring at her in shock after her having told him about Blaise training her.

They moved on to Mione's last stop, which turned out to be none other than Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Draco looked at her with a raised eyebrow when she went inside and motioned for him to follow.

Fred and George were taking turns modeling their Headless Hats for a bunch of younger Hogwarts students. When they saw Mione Fred said loudly, "Have mine eyes deceived me, or has the new Head Girl just stepped into our humble shop?"

"Not just the Head Girl, Fred, but the Head Boy as well. And we need some…**special** items."

Fred and George raised identical eyebrows at her. "Come into the back, and we would be more than happy to talk business with you. **LEE! Come out here and help costumers! **And if you two would please follow me…" and George led them into the back room.

"So My, watcha' lookin' for?"

"Well, I want all of your best stuff, including everything that you used at Hogwarts, especially the bog, I have special plans for that," she said with a mischievous grin.

The twins' faces lit up at her words, "Would you like the bog, ocean, lake, or river?"

"All four."

When she said this, it was like her words came to life and the twins shot out of their seats and started running around the shop gathering things off the shelves, and getting things out of the back room closets, chests, and boxes.

When they were finally done, they had filled about 8 large bags. Hermione paid for everything, and she had been planning on spending more, but the twins' insisted on giving her a discount and when they went to leave, George rushed over to her with two smaller bulging bags and handed them to her.

"What's this?"

"Some of our early stuff is in this bag," he pointed, "and some of our brand new stuff is in the other."

"Brilliant!"

"You'll owl us to let us know how it all goes, won't you?"

"Of course! I wouldn't dream of causing mayhem second only to you, with your products no less, and not tell you about it. Filch won't know what's hit him. There hasn't been any real mayhem since you two left. And of course, no one would think of suspecting little old me," she said with a perfect innocent face and tone. "Gotta get goin, we have to get to school before dinner."

Then she and Draco left the shop and got back onto the Knight Bus, Draco looking interestedly through the bags until Mione told him to stop. And then they were at Hogwarts, a place that had been so much like home over the past 6 years.

_**A/N:** Hope you liked it, REVIEW! And we get to Hogwarts next chapter! Yay! Does a little happy dance! Byes!_

_Kat_


	9. Hogwarts, Marauders, and Head Dorms

**A/N:** Ho hum. I forgot how long of a chapter this is.

**Disclaimer:** The ideas are mine…that's all.

_**A/N:** I only got two reviews for chapter eight  me sad. BUT-READ THIS IMPORTANTI don't think I mentioned that Hermione and Draco are going the day before the rest of the students, ONE DAY, just FYI! Enjoy_

Previously 

"Of course! I wouldn't dream of causing mayhem second only to you, with your products no less, and not tell you about it. Filch won't know what's hit him. There hasn't been any real mayhem since you two left. And of course, no one would think of suspecting little old me," she said with a perfect innocent face and ton. "Gotta get goin, we have to get to school before dinner."

"Then she and Draco left the shop and got back onto the Knight Bus, Draco looking interestedly through the bags until Mione told him to stop. And then they were at Hogwarts, a place that had been so much like home over the past 6 years.

**Chapter Nine**

**Hogwarts, Marauders and Head Dorms**

They finally arrived around 5 and they wouldn't be needed until dinner, which wasn't for another two hours. They were shown their new, shared dorms by Professor Dumbledore.

"The location of the dorms move each year, the day the new heads arrive, and for your privacy, only you and one friend each will be allowed the exact location of the dorms. Not even the teachers will know. Ah, here we are."

They had come to a picture of the four founders making a model of Hogwarts out of an Exploding Snap pack.

"Excuse me ladies, gentlemen."

"Ah, Dumbledore!"

"Good to see you!"

"Who are they?"

Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor, and Salazar Slytherin said all of this in rapid succession.

"Why they must be the new Heads," Ravenclaw said, "Hermione Zabini and Draco Malfoy. Good to have you both. This is the first year in about twenty years that at least one of the Heads wasn't in my own house. But no matter, the four of us will now lead you to your dorms."

With that, the six of them went off down the hallway, Dumbledore having disappeared.

As they followed the founders down the hall Slytherin asked Hermione, "Do you know who you would like for your one person to be, Miss Zabini?"

"Yes, Ginny Weasley, she's a 7th year Gryffindor."

"How about you Master Malfoy?"

"Hermione's cousin, Blaise Zabini. He's a 7th year Slytherin."

"Oh yes! We heard about that little family reunion," Hufflepuff commented.

"Here we go! What shall the password be?" Gryffindor asked as they came upon a portrait of Harry Potter wearing a T-shirt that read, 'The Boy Who Lived', and winking at them.

"No! No way! There is no chance in hell of my living in a dorm with a portrait of Potter as the door! Not happening! Oh nahnahnah!"

The four founders roared with laughter as they looked at the portrait. Hermione followed their gaze and burst out laughing, the picture of Harry had disappeared. Now there were three young men, who looked to be in 7th year when the portrait was made. They were all on the floor rolling with laughter. She also so the picture of Harry crumpled upon the floor, it was a poster.

Draco looked again as the picture of Harry fell and he too started to laugh. Now that the Potter poster was gone, they could see a trio. The caption read 'The Marauders' but Hermione noticed something; there were only three, Sirius, James and Remus. Peter was nowhere to be seen, he must have walked out of the portrait.

"We thought you might like this one, Miss Zabini," commented Gryffindor, for Hermione was grinning from ear to ear.

The Sirius and James of the portrait were struggling for breath as they wiped their eyes, which were damp from tears of laughter.

"Padfoot Prongs!"

"Yeah, Moony?" Sirius asked standing up.

"We have to tell them everything."

"Right," said James, and they all looked at each other and at the same time snapped to attention with a very stern face.

That lasted for about 5 seconds before a sound came from the back of James' throat and they started laughing, along with Hermione and Draco. Between gasps of breath James managed to say, "As you know, you're allowed to have one person each, and only you four, and us of course, will know the password and location of your dorms."

"And they can come in anytime, but there is a spell on the handles to your bedrooms, that will only open for the two of you, so they will only have access to the common room and bathroom," Remus added.

James piped up with; "Oh, and you can have us leave messages for each other or your friends if you want. Anything I missed Moony?" Remus shook his head, "Padfoot?"

"Yup! Who are the people, so that we can go find them tomorrow and tell them, and what do you want the password to be?"

"Good thinking, Padfoot!"

Draco and Mione looked at each other and opened their mouths and said simultaneously, "Chaos."

"Very well," Sirius said in a mock-gentleman-voice, "And who are your guests?"

"Ginny Weasley, Gryffindor, and Blaise Zabini, Slytherin." Hermione answered.

"Weasley? Hey, Prongs, wasn't that the name of the keeper when we played Quidditch?"

"Yeah, I think so! Is her dad's name Arthur?"

"You guys went to school with Mr. Weasley?"

"You bet, we weren't close but we were friendly," Remus answered.

"Well, this is a touching moment, really it is," Draco said, "but I would rather like to get to my room now."

"Righto, fellas?"

At this, the three bowed to them and James, who was in the middle, asked in a Lordly voice, "Password, good sir and gentle lady?" Sirius and Remus snorted with laughter and James fought to keep a straight face, it didn't work.

"Chaos," Hermione answered laughingly.

James winked at her as the portrait swung open.

The two walked into the room and were floored.

The wall directly opposite them was given over almost entirely to a large fireplace with a small window, and window seat, on either side of it. A few feet in front of the fireplace was a table and behind that was a black suede couch. One either end of this were two comfortable looking chairs. This setup of black couch and midnight chairs was mirrored behind, so the two couches were back to back.

The walls to their left and right were covered in bookshelves from ceiling to floor, except for four doors leading out of the room. On the left were the doors to Hermione's room and their shared bathroom.

They both walked into her room. On the wall to the left was a large fireplace with a roaring fire. In the back wall was a desk and a few feet away was an elegant and sophisticated mahogany vanity. Next to that was her walk in closet. The right wall was centered with a king-sized four-poster bed with a small table on each side, which were also made of mahogany, as was the bed frame. The comforter was a deep midnight blue, almost black, and the sides of it were edged in silver with a large curvy rectangular outline six inches from the sides. There were two large fluffy pillows under the blackest and one long blue one stretching across both, and resting against this was a small cylindrical pillow made of plush velvet, like the sheets and comforter, but was silver instead of blue. At the end of the bed was a blue settee (for those of you who don't know, its pretty much a couch without a back). The walls were the inverse of her bedspread; they were silver with curvy blue lines running vertically down their length.

"I think this is my room," Hermione said, "let's go check out the rest of the rooms."

They went next door to see a large bathroom with a pool the size of a muggle back yard pool, a large shower, double counter and, of course, a toilet. But there was a door leading to the room with the toilet, which had a door leading to it from each of the closets in Hermione and Draco's bedrooms.

The went to the door on the opposite side of the room to find themselves in what looked to be a dining room with 4 chairs around the table and an archway leading in to an expansive kitchen.

They left this room and went to the last door, which was Draco's room.

Draco's room was much like hers, except that he had a small dresser instead of a vanity, and his closet was a little bit smaller than hers. However, the main difference was in the color scheme. Where Hermione's was midnight blue, Draco's was a deep blood red and Hermione's secondary color had been silver, Draco's was black. The comforter was the deep red and was not plush velvet but silk. And his sheets did not match the comforter but were black. The large pillow across the top of the regular two was red, and the cylindrical pillow was silver like Hermione's. The walls, which were plain, were silver. At the end of his bed was a black couch like the ones in the common room.

"Looks like they like me better," Draco said.

"How do you figure that?" Hermione asked rolling her eyes.

"I got a whole couch."

They moved back into the common room and flopped on opposite ends of the couch facing the fire.

"Okay, I'm bored."

"Well, um, lets see. I wonder…" she trailed off as she got up from the couch. She walked over to the nearest bookshelf, looked at the books in front of her, and noticed that only a few of the books actually had titles on the sides. The rest had the titles of her favorite books on them (this is a bookshelf right beside her door). She picked up one of the plain books and opened it. All the pages were blank. She closed it, thought about what she wanted, opened the book, and grinned. There, instead of blank pages, were hundreds of questions to ask someone.

She went back to the couch after grabbing another book and thinking, _I want what's in the other book_. She sat down and handed one to Draco. He looked at her, then at the book, then back to her.

"Pick a random question and ask it. I answer it first then you do, then I pick a question."

Draco smiled widely and started skimming the questions. Hermione couldn't help but think, _Please don't let him find anything that would be hard to answer, at least not yet. _He frowned and looked back at the book.

"Hey! Some of the questions disappeared!"

Hermione smiled to herself.

"Hurry up and pick one, I've already got mine."

"Okay, okay…how about…what's your favorite class?"

"Ancient Runes, probably. You?"

"Same here. Okay, your turn."

"Well, since I already know you have at least one tattoo…do you have any other tattoos? If so, where? And you have to show me."

Grinning he answered, "I have two others besides the dragon. I have an armband," and he showed her his left upper arm around which was an intricate tribal design, "and the Chinese character for Chaos, right here," and he showed her the tattoo on his wrist. "and then the dragon is right here," at that he turned around and pulled the back of his shirt down at the neck revealing a tribal dragon of dark green with a silver line running along its back. "Now how about you? I know you have at least two."

"I have three, and I thought you noticed the third one earlier today and that night at the club. But, I have the Chaos," she held up her wrist to show him, "a lower back one, which you are able to see most of the time as I make sure its visible," she turned around to show him the delicate tribal design, "and last but not least, my panther tattoo," she lifted her hair off the back of her neck and revealed a very small tattoo of a black tribal panther head, and neck, with silver eyes and teeth. As he looked at it, the eyes seemed to glint and the profile moved and he could have sworn that it had bared its silver teeth at him, but the next second it was back to normal, and he couldn't decide if it was a trick or not.

"Did it just…?"

"Did it bare its teeth at you?" she questioned him excitedly.

"You mean, it really did?"

"Yeah! I charmed it to move this summer. Cool huh?"

"Can you teach me?"

"Sure. But it'll have to be later; we don't have time right now. Next question," she said, sitting back down and motioning for Draco to do the same.

"Oh, right. Umm…did you know that you were going to be a panther before the first time you transformed? And, this is a two part question, do you like being a panther?"

"Why do you think I got that tattoo?"

"Well, I got mine before I knew that," he said defensively, "its what my name means after all."

"Right, forgot. But, yeah, I did. I researched what kind of animal I would become, and it turned out to be a panther. I don't have any real distinguishing marks of my own, at least I don't think I do, so I got the tattoo, and since silver is one of my favorite colors, I decided to make the eyes and teeth silver, and it turned out that those became my marks. And I love being a panther; panthers were always my favorite animals. I love their grace and quiet strength. Being a panther is one of the reasons why I work out. I mean, who wants a fat panther?"

Draco laughed, "I didn't know for certain that I would be a dragon, but I knew that it would be some kind of mystical creature. And I figured that my marks would be this birthmark that I have on my heel or something. But hey! Loving the dragon! Besides, it fits. And I love it because I can fly whenever I want, and I don't have to have a broom."

"Do you think…" she looked apprehensive.

"What?"

She looked down, "Well…do you think I could fly with you sometime? Like when you're a dragon?" She looked up hopefully.

"Sure! When do you want to? Tonight?"

"Not tonight! Tomorrow the students come."

"Yeah, but not till nighttime," Draco reminded her.

"Oh, right," she said sheepishly, "then tonight sounds great."

"Great, it's a date! It looks like its time for dinner, we'll do another question as we walk down."

"My turn. What are you most looking forward to this year?"

"Oh, um, I really hadn't thought about it. But off the top of my head, most likely the time right when N. E. W. T. S. are but before we leave. That's always my favorite part, the time after exams when it's totally relaxed. Oh, and by the way, I'm not going to let you get crazy with the studying and stuff. And I absolutely refuse to go over every single question of every exam with you right after. Now that I've said that, what about you? What is Hermione Zabini, Animagus and Head Girl most likely looking forward to this year?"

She laughed before answering. "You're going to think I've turned into every other simpering girl in this castle when I tell you, but its probably getting to plan everything. Especially the dances. I know, I know, 'silly Mione is like all the other girls,' but its true. Can you believe that we're having a Halloween Costume Party, a Yule Ball, and a Spring Festival? I already have some ideas. Like…oh, never mind, it wouldn't interest you."

"Sure it would, come on, tell me."

"Well, for the Halloween one, I think we should have a theme of coming as characters from muggle books or movies. I would be willing to help anyone who needs ideas, and I was even thinking of the two weekends before, we could watch some movies in the Great Hall for ideas. What do you think?"

Draco just stared at her for a second, and answered as they walked down the main staircase, "I think that's brilliant! Do you know whom you want to go as? You do, don't you?"

"Well…I have always loved Ancient Egypt, and so has Ginny, so we are going as Anck-su-namun and Nefertiri. They're characters from the muggle movie, The Mummy. We both love that movie, and there are perfect costumes for us to wear, and provide a little side entertainment," she said with a mischievous smile on her face. "So that's who I'm going to be. I even…" she looked down blushing.

"What?"

"I'll tell you later," she answered and opened the doors to the Great Hall.

Professors McGonagall and Snape came up to them and welcomed them. Then they led them to a circular table in the middle of the Hall. The four house tables were missing, as was the teacher's table.

"During the holidays, we all eat at this table, it makes it easier to talk to everyone."

They nodded and sat down at two available seats. The professors flanked them. But instead of Snape sitting by Draco, he sat down next to Hermione.

"Miss Zabini," he said as he sat down.

"Professor."

"I hope your holidays were pleasant."

"Very much so, it's not every day you wake up with a new family."

"No it's not."

They sat in companionable silence through most of the meal, making small comments on various subjects occasionally. When they were done, and no one got up to leave and instead kept talking, Hermione turned to him.

"Professor, I've been meaning to ask you something."

He looked at her curiously, "About what Miss Zabini?"

"Potions," she noted his face brighten somewhat as she mentioned this topic. "As potions is my favorite subject, I was thinking of a career in that area. In fact, I know that there is a high demand for potions on the market, and that people ask friends to make them when they don't want to make them themselves."

"Ah, yes. I, however, don't see why someone would not want to make a potion themselves."

"Nor do I, but it actually creates an excellent business opportunity. I was thinking of maybe starting a small business for potions. Keeping a select stock on hand at all times for emergencies and such, but also taking orders from people and making the potion for them. What do you think?"

She said all this very quickly as she hadn't know exactly how the subject would be broached or what exactly she wanted to say, and as such it took Snape a few seconds to register all she had said.

"I think that is an excellent idea. I know that your family has the money to help you get started, so that shouldn't be a drawback."

"Oh no, its not. But I was hoping you could help me figure out some of the other things I might need to get started, potion wise. Such as, good potions to keep stocked, what I should offer to make, how much I should charge, if I need to have other people in this business to help make the potions, and things like that."

"Well, how about you let me think about the kinds of things you would need, and I will answer any other questions you have at another time as I am getting rather tired. It has been a long day, and tomorrow will be another long day."

"Sure. Just let me know when."

"I will do that, Miss Zabini. Good evening," and he stood up and left the Hall.

It was only then that Hermione noticed that most of the Professors had already left the table and were either heading out of the Great Hall or were already gone. She turned to see Draco looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" she asked, defensively.

"Oh, nothing. Are you done?"

"Yes."

"Let's go then."

They got up and said "Good night" to the rest of the Professors and left the Hall for their dorms. When they got to the portrait of the Marauders, they saw that they were all fast asleep. Sirius was slumped in a chair near the fire, James was spread out along the length of the couch and Remus was sitting up leaning against the frame of the painting snoring slightly. As he was the one closest to them (**for my purposes the paintings are like the real world to their occupants, there is depth when your looking at them isn't there? So it is possible for someone to be closer!**) Hermione moved towards his side of the portrait and said quietly, "Remus!" He didn't budge. "Lupin!" He still didn't budge, even though she said this a bit louder. "Moony!" he shot up awake at this, "Wha?" he looked around frantically looking for whoever had woken him.

"Chaos."

"Right, night," and he slumped back against the frame and drifted off to sleep again.

_**A/N: **students come tomorrow! And its gonna be a little while till I update next, because I haven't even started to write the next chapter, which I usually do before posting one, so be patient please. Remember, it's a virtue, one that I really don't like. But I'll try to hurry._

_Kat_


	10. Movies

**A/N:** Hey all, I know it took a little while to update, longer than usual anyway, so I hope you like this chapter!

Secretspells311: well, I'm glad that you can be patient. I don't like to be patient, it's boring. Enjoy the chapter! 

**Sirusblackshottie:** that's awesome! I have my own mini me, and her name is Caitlin, just like me, and the thing is, not only are our names spelled the same (didya know there's over 20 ways to spell it?) but also we are so alike it's scary sometimes. It's like she's not my mini me but my clone. Its freaky, but in a good way! Hope you like the chapter.

**Silverwolf130492: **I love the marauders too; I loved seeing them in the 5th book as when they were young, so I decided to have a portrait of them in the castle, and this way so that they can be in it more. Plenty of mischief for Draco! Hehehe (insert evil grin). Enjoy!

**Heaven N Angel:** thanks so much for reviewing! And I'm glad you like the tattoos so much. There will be more stuff with them. So yay on that. And I'm glad you like the story. Enjoy this chapter!

**BenjiMaddenFreek:** I updated! Maybe not as soon as I could have, but still soon all the same. Hope you like the chapter!

Previously 

Hermione moved towards his side of the portrait and said quietly, "Remus!" He didn't budge. "Lupin!" He still didn't budge, even though she said this a bit louder. "Moony!" he shot up awake at this, "Wha?" he looked around frantically looking for whoever had woken him.

"Chaos."

"Right, night," and he slumped back against the frame and drifted off to sleep again.

Chapter Ten Movies 

"Okay, now, remember when we were walking to the Great Hall? And we were talking on the way?" asked Draco.

"Yes," Hermione answered hesitantly.

"Well you were talking about your Halloween costume and were gonna say something that you did, but we got there before you could say what you did."

"Oh, well…" she trailed off and looked down again, just as she had earlier.

"What?"

"Well, I know there are a lot of students here who don't know much about muggle movies or have seen any. So I asked the Headmaster if I could arrange a movie night every Saturday night until the dance so that people could get ideas for their costumes, and then they could also come and ask people who know about muggle movies for ideas as well."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and he said yes. What do you think?"

"I think that that's an ingenious idea! I mean, there are plenty of people who have seen one or two movies, but they aren't movies that would have any good ideas for costumes. I myself have only ever seen three movies and they were all over the past two summers. Could I help you pick some of the movies?"

"Sure. Of course. I didn't really think that you would like the idea, to be honest."  
"Why wouldn't I? I'm not the same bigoted idiot I was first through fifth year. I like muggles and muggle technology. Didn't Blaise tell you that I was the one who made him get a cell phone? Just so I would have a reason to use mine?"

Hermione thought about it. Blaise had mentioned something about only getting it because someone told him to, but she couldn't remember him saying that it had been Draco who made him get it.

"Anyway, what kind of movies did you bring? Can we watch one now?"

He was like a little boy on his birthday, trying to get his parents to let him open his presents.

"Sure, why not? It's not like we've got anything to do anyway. What are the movies you've seen?"

"Well, I saw…King Arthur and Van Helsing. Then the third one was at Blaise's house after you got him into movies, The Matrix. I really liked that one."

"Well, I have all three of the Matrix movies with me, if you want to watch one of them."

"There's three of them?"

"Yeah," she laughed, "there's _The Matrix,_ then comes _The Matrix Reloaded_ and last is _The Matrix Revolutions_. Do you want to see the second one tonight, and the third another time?"

"Yeah, sounds good. Where we going to watch?" he raised an eyebrow at her. Maybe they'd have to watch in her room.

"Well, I can bring it out here, and that would be much more comfy than then floor of my room, and we can have some popcorn and change into our pajamas. How's that?"

"I'll meet you back here in ten minutes. You with the movie and me with the popcorn,"

With that they went in opposite directions, each to their respective rooms.

Hermione went around her room, trying to find her TV and movies. She finally found them in the drawer of the bedside table, where a house elf had put them. She had given S. P. E. W. at the end of 5th year, after Voldemort's return was made public. There had been too much to do. She put the TV and movie on the bed and went to her closet. She looked at the clothes hanging around her. She found what she was looking for, grabbed it, and left. After putting her pajamas on and grabbing the shrunken TV and the DVD box, Mione went towards the Common Room, stopping at the mirror of her vanity before doing so. She brushed her hair into a smooth ponytail and checked to make sure there was nothing in her teeth from dinner.

Draco was in the kitchen making popcorn. He sat on the counter waiting for the magical microwave to finish its job. He then went into his room and got dressed into his pajamas. He then grabbed the popcorn that he made and went to the mirror over his dresser and looked himself over, making sure that his hair wasn't standing up in odd directions and making sure that he didn't have dinner food stuck between his teeth. He then walked out of his room and into the Common Room,

They both stopped. Hermione had been in the process of putting the DVD into her now normal sized TV. She looked over at him. He wasn't wearing a shirt. _Oh boy, Quidditch has done him A LOT of good. Oh boy. Ummm…movie….right._ Now that he wasn't wearing a shirt Mione could see the well-defined muscles that his body consisted of. He had an amazingly chiseled chest and arms that looked like they could keep a girl safe whether beating someone to a pulp or holding you. Hermione had a theory about arms. The stronger they looked, the better they felt around you. And Draco's arms certainly looked strong. His pajama bottoms were a dark hunter green you would expect from a Slytherin. They also seemed to be made of silk, just like his sheets.

Hermione was looking at him. He could tell she was admiring his toned body, and he took the moment to do the same. She had on a pair of short cotton shorts and a cotton tank to go with it. In fact, it wasn't so much a tank as it was a sports bra. She turned back to the TV and finished setting up the movie. When she did this he was able to clearly see the tattoo on her lower back, which was bared by the low shorts and sports bra. He could also see the panther tattoo, which seemed to be napping. The shorts were so low on her hips that if they hadn't been so tight they might have fallen off. As it was, they were very firmly in place as they snuggly fit her backside. He looked at her long legs, they were very toned and looked strong. She turned back around, walked towards him, and grabbed the bowl of popcorn out of his hands, took his hand, and led him to the couch. He noticed her taught stomach which also looked as if it had seen its fair share of crunches and other workouts.

Hermione led him to the couch and sat down in the middle of it and motioned for him to sit next to her. He did. He also put his arm around the back of the couch. She knew that before the night was over Draco's arm would be around either her shoulder or her waist.

About halfway into the movie Draco looked down at the figure in his arms. Somewhere during the course of the movie they had moved towards the end of the couch closest to Draco and Hermione was leaning against him with her legs curled up underneath her and resting on his leg. Her head was on his shoulder arms wrapped around his middle. He had his left hand resting on her right knee and his right arm was around her shoulder with his hand running up and down her arm slowly.

She looked up at him and smiled warmly at him. He smiled back and turned his attention back to the movie. She was so pleased with how this was going. She wanted to stay just like this. Granted, the sex scene near the beginning of the movie had been a bit awkward, but after that everything had been going swimmingly.

The movie ended without incidence and Draco looked back down at Hermione who had fallen asleep sometime during the last half of the movie. Draco, who didn't feel like relinquishing the warmth of her body for the coolness of his bed, summoned a warm blanket from his room and tossed over the both of them while shifting his position into a more sleep condusive position while trying not to wake her. It took a few minutes but he managed.

The next morning came around too early for Draco's tastes. He looked down and saw Hermione looking up at him. She smiled when she realized that he was awake. He smiled back at her and gave her a slight squeeze which she returned. She then snuggled back down into the blanket and the security of Draco's arms. She had been right. She felt that, when she was in his arms, nothing could harm her, and she didn't want to leave that feeling.

After another half an hour of just staying in each other's arms, Mione reluctantly got up and stretched gracefully. Draco yawned.

"What do we have to do today?" he asked her.

"Nothing until lunch. Then we have to have lunch with our heads of house and Professor Dumbledore. Then we have the rest of the day until the train arrives."

"Okay, what time is it?" he mumbled to himself. He looked down at his watch and got a rather large shock. "What time is lunch?"

"Eleven thirty. Why? What time is it now?"

"It's eleven o'clock. We just slept through the entire morning, Mione." He laughed at the thought. Hermione joined him.

They laughed for a solid minute before Hermione jumped up and dashed to her room yelling back over her shoulder, "I get the bathroom first!"

"Not if I get it first!" Draco yelled back running to his room as well.

It turned out that Hermione got the bathroom first.

They showered and dressed. Then they made their way down to the Entrance Hall where they met the three Professors.

"We've decided that today is too nice of a day to stay in for lunch. How about a picnic?"

They went out onto the grounds where a large red and white checkered tablecloth was spread over the ground with many different dishes. They ate and talked about the duties of Head Girl and Boy. When they were done they went back into the castle.

"So Mione, I haven't seen you fly yet. Want to go out and fly around the grounds?"

"You know what? That sounds perfect. Let's go."

They went back up to their dorms and got their brooms. With Mione in the lead, they ran back outdoors Draco trying to get Mione so that she would let him ride her broom. But no matter how hard he ran, Hermione always seemed to be out of reach. They mounted their brooms and took off and Draco had to admit that even he didn't have the kind of natural skill and calm that she had. If he hadn't known better he might have thought that she had been born riding a broomstick.

They spent the entire afternoon flying. When it was almost time for them to meet the train they headed back indoors and changed into their robes. Hermione was nervous. Tonight was the first time that her friends would see her since her new look. She didn't know however that her absence on the train was causing her friends to worry.

"So wait a minute Ron, this is the _last_ card that you need to complete your chocolate frog card collection?"

Or it had, before Ginny told them that she was Head Girl and as such had to be there a day before anyone else.

"YES! Now bloody give it to me before I attack you!" Ron fairly screamed.

Laughing, Harry handed the card to Ron, who looked at it, and chucked it at Harry.

"What the bloody hell was that for! Why did ya have to do that to me? What did I ever do to you? Huh?"

The card that Harry had given Ron was not Agrippa but Dumbledore. Ron had thirteen Dumbledore cards.

"So Gin, you say that Hermione is already there?"

"For the last time Harry, YES! I know that she's already there, because she sent me an owl!"

The boys had the dignity to look sheepish. "Sorry," they both mumbled.

"It's just that we haven't seen her all summer," Harry said.

"Yeah, we miss her, we haven't even gotten to talk to her, all the news comes through you." Ron provided.

Ginny scowled at the two of them. "How many times do I have to tell you? She'll explain it all when you see her. Which will be in about five seconds as we're here."

The boys' heads snapped to the windows where they looked out and distinguished three figures waiting on the platform. One was about twice the size of the other two and was obviously Hagrid. Of the other two, one was taller and had the build of a male and the other was slightly shorter and was clearly female. Last year had started the tradition of the Head Boy and Girl coming down to the station to meet the train.

The two recognized the girl as the one that was with Draco the day before in Diagon Alley. They all got off the train and Ginny dragged them towards the three figures. When they got closer the girl launched herself at Harry and Ron and took them each into a lung crushing hug.

"Harry! Ron! It's so good to see you both! How much have you told them, Ginny?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"HERMIONE!" the two asked in unison.

**A/N: **I know, I'm evil, but my brain isn't functioning anymore and I need sleep so I leave off here. Oh and how many of you want me to refer to the marauders as James Remus and Sirius and how many want Prongs Moony and Padfoot? Or do you want me to do it the way I did last chapter? Let me know.

Kat


	11. Heritage Revealed

A/N: well, this was a pretty quick update…I think…kinda…maybe. 

**And-if anyone wants to see the jewelry from the club or if you want to see the tattoos that I based them off of let me know and I'll email the pictures to you.**

**Cheesedogtoda-core:** I'm glad you like it, and I wrote this new chapter for you. Well kinda anyway!

**Sirusblackshottie:** we couldn't pass as sisters and we're not quite as close as the two of you, that's awesome that you have that. And thanks for the review, enjoy this chapter

**Luckycharms129:** will do! Enjoy the chapter!

**Silverwolf130492:** Peter annoys me, too. So I decided "the hell with peter! Who cares about him anyway? Not me!" well enjoy the chapter.

**Natty123:** A new reviewer! Always happy when a new person reads my story! Yay! Especially when they like it, hehe. The tattoos are probably one of my favorite parts of the story, there will be more involving the story later. Hope you like this chapter!

Previously 

"Harry! Ron! It's so good to see you both! Have much have you told them, Ginny?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"Hermione!"

Chapter Eleven 

**Heritage Revealed**

"Yup!"

"What happened to you?"

"And why were you with Malfoy at Diagon Alley but wouldn't come over to talk to us? How come you told him and not us?"

It was a round of rapid-fire questions before Hermione could get them to shut up so she could explain, but by then she had to lead everyone to the carriages, and then was only able to answer all their questions and more when they got into a carriage. Hermione sat with Draco on one side of her and Blaise on the other. Ginny was directly across from Blaise, Harry across from Mione and Ron across from Draco.

"I wanted to surprise you, and I did! And I told Ginny and Draco not to tell you anything because of that. And I also wanted to tell you myself. I wanted to be able to give you all the details myself."

"Okay," Harry nodded, "but that still doesn't explain why you didn't tell us. You told Ginny, why not us?"

"Because I needed to tell someone, and like I said, I wanted to surprise you. Now will you stop with the 'why didn't you tell us' questions so I can tell you what exactly happened?" Hermione asked, getting exasperated with the pair.

"Sorry. Go ahead."

She then filled them in on what had happened to her, and how she found out about her new family, and Blaise. She didn't however tell them about being able to get special treatment from Sirius, because she knew that Sirius treated her differently than he did Harry. The two of them were closer because of what she had done for him. She also didn't tell them about playing Quidditch.

When she was done they sat gaping at her and most likely would have done so all night if it had not been for the fact that they arrived at the doors to the school a minute later. They all filed out of the carriage and headed into the Great Hall whose ceiling was a cloudless blue to rival that of the Head's dorms.

They sat down at their respective tables, but Hermione and Draco sat at the teacher's table, a new tradition that had been started the previous year, only for major events though.

"Man, why didn't you tell us Ginny?" the two rounded on her as soon as Mione was out of earshot.

"Did you see the looks on their faces?" Hermione chortled. She was finding it hard to control her laughter, "their mouths were hanging open!"

"I don't think it was just the information. Mione, you didn't see their faces when they saw you in Diagon Alley. Ron was literally drooling."

"Yeah, but they don't think of me that way, and they aren't so shallow as to suddenly get a crush on me just because I look different. Trust me on this; I'm like their little sister. And if they don't get that, then I will give Blaise the okay to kick their asses like I promised I would. Honestly, you would think we were siblings instead of cousins!"

They sat down at the table and were immediately drawn into pleasantries by the Professors until the sorting. Afterwards, Dumbledore got to his feet, "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. Now before our minds get weighed down with thoughts of food and sleep I have a few announcements. First, as always, the Forbidden Forest is just that…forbidden. Next, please give a round of applause to Hermione Zabini, formerly Hermione Granger, and Draco Malfoy, our new Head Girl and Boy. Lastly, tuck in!" he sat down.

After dinner, all the students went to their respective dorms. Hermione and Draco made their way to the Marauders portrait.

The Marauders were doing what many portrait occupants do: model of Hogwarts out of and Exploding Snap pack.

"Hey guys," Draco called as they approached. None of them looked up. "Sirius? James? Remus?" Still none of them looked up.

"Padfoot!" Hermione shouted.

Startled, Sirius jumped…and toppled the card castle. The three sighed. "Right, password?"

"Actually, I was wondering if Ginny and Blaise know about them being allowed to come up here?"

"Not yet, we were going to do that after you were in for the night."

"Don't bother, we'll be back in a while."

With that, Hermione took Draco by the hand and led him to the Entrance Hall and up several flights of stairs to the corridor housing the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Ah, Miss Zabini, Mr. Malfoy. Now, to get into your House Common Rooms, I just need the password to your Head Dorms."

"Chaos," Hermione told her.

The door swung open and Hermione poked her head in and looked around. The common room was completely deserted…well, almost. Ginny was sitting by the fire reading. Mione and Draco entered quietly.

"Hey Ginny!"

"Mione!" She got up and ran over to Hermione and enveloped her in a huge hug. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to steal you away to my dorms!"

Ginny giggled and they all left. They made their way to the Slytherin common room where the same procedure was followed. They entered and found a few more people in the room than had been in Gryffindor tower, but they took no notice in the trio. They saw Blaise sitting over by the fire and made their way towards him.

"Blaise."

He looked around to see who had said his name, "Oh, hey guys! Wait, what are you doing here?"

"We're kidnapping you," Draco answered with a straight face.

"Is that all?"

"Actually," Hermione interceded, "we're Blaise-napping you, if you want to get technical."

Blaise got up and the four of them headed towards Hermione and Draco's dorms. When they reached the portrait, Hermione introduced everyone.

"Okay guys, this is Ginny," she pointed to Ginny and then to Blaise, "and this is Blaise. These guys," she said gesturing to the Marauders, and pointing to each in turn, "are James Potter, aka Prongs, Remus Lupin, aka Moony and Sirius Black, aka Padfoot," they all waved at each other in greeting. "If you can't get their attention with a name use their alias."

"Now that we're all introduced, the password is 'Chaos'."

The portrait swung forward and admitted the four. Ginny and Blaise stopped in their tracks as they took in the beautiful room.

"Whoa, this is where you guys live?" Ginny asked her mouth gaping open.

Hermione grinned, "Yup! And you haven't even seen our rooms. Mine's over there," she pointed to her door. Draco was about to open his mouth to say something, but Hermione shook her head. She thought he was going to tell Ginny that the two of them were the only ones able to open the doors, but she wanted to know what would happen if someone else tried to open the door.

Ginny reached out for the door knob, she grasped it and promptly let go, as if it had bitten her. "Ouch!" She looked at the two of them, "Why did that happen?"

"Oh! I forgot, we're the only one's who are allowed to open the rooms. Here," she said, walking over to Ginny and the her door, "let me," and she opened the door to her room and stepped through, closely followed by Ginny.

Ginny's expression was filled with awe, "Whoa, can I sleep in here?"

"Um, Gin, this is my room."

"Yeah, I know. What's your point?"

"As in, I will be sleeping in here."

"So…that bed is big enough for 10 people. Oooh, can we test that theory?"

"No, I don't think so. You can spend as many nights here as you want, but I draw the line of having 10 people in my bed. Tonight, we shall go explore the grounds. You did say that you finally managed to transform, didn't you?"

"Oh, yeah. You mean, we'll go out tonight like the Marauders?"

"Exactly, there will even be four of us."

"What? You taught Harry and Ron too?"

"No," Hermione almost laughed aloud at this. The thought of Harry and Ron doing more work and research than necessary was amusing. "Harry and Ron would never do more work than absolutely necessary. No, Draco is an Animagi and I taught Blaise over the summer as well as you. They don't know it yet, but they're coming with us."

Ginny looked somewhat shocked, "Really? When are we going?"

"As soon as we go and get them. Ready?"

"You bet."

The girls left the room and went in search of the duo. They found them in Draco's room talking about Quidditch.

"Not that I don't appreciate a good talk of Quidditch, but do you think we could get going now?"

Draco and Blaise looked at her, then at each other, then back at her, "What are you talking about?" Blaise questioned her.

"Well, I was thinking, we're all Animagi right?"

"We are?" Draco asked

"Yes, I taught Ginny and Blaise over the summer."

"Oh."

"So, I was thinking that we should go out and explore the grounds. I mean, we can't get caught if we're animals, can we?"

"Brilliant, Mione!" Blaise exclaimed.

"You make it sound as if I've never had a good idea before," Hermione said with mock hurt. "So, are all of you in?"

"Like you need to ask?" Draco asked.

"Duh," Ginny said.

"What else were we going to do?" Blaise said.

The four went out into the common room. Draco, Blaise and Ginny all turned towards the portrait hole.

"Hold on, where are you going?"

"Out to the grounds, remember? It was your idea."

"Yes, I know that. But we could get caught. I was thinking, Draco," she turned towards him, "could you fly us down? In our current state, I mean."

"Not all at once, but yeah, I can."

"Good, take Ginny first. How about you fly her over to the Quidditch pitch? She can blend in the best and can protect herself."

"Alright. Just open the window for me. Ready Ginny?"

"Uh, sure, but just what kind of animal are you?"

He smirked evilly and transformed. Ginny gasped. Hermione then told her to get on his back, which she did hesitating just a moment. They swept out of the room and into the night sky. Just a few minutes later and Draco was back. This time, Blaise got on his back.

"Mush!"

The dragon turned his head to look at the person on his back. It glared at Blaise, who grinned back. The flew out of the room and once again, just a few short minutes later, and Draco was back, but this time he transformed back into himself.

"So, you ready for this?" he asked her.

"Yup, I had to get my flight in somehow tonight, didn't I?"

Draco grinned and turned back into the dragon. Hermione walked up to him, and Draco cocked his head to one side, clearly wondering why she was just standing in front of him, instead of getting on his back so they could go to Ginny and Blaise. She gave him a kiss on the head, right between his eyes, and went around his side to get on his back.

**A/N: Not the longest, and not the best, but I didn't want to make it be even longer before I updated. Sorry about the wait!**


	12. A New Generation

**A/N **I have 45 reviews! That makes me happy! Yay! (Does a happy dance) Here's a new chapter! And Standardized Tests Suck Ass! I hate em I hate em I hate em! They're a waste of time. Anyways…here we go…

**Pure-undead-pyra:** I'm glad you think so!

**Mezza:** I'm glad you like it, and I like the idea, I'll see if I can work that in! Hope you like the chapter.

**Future movie maker: **Glad you like the story…ah, yes; you'll find that out in this chapter!

Crazysam: thanks, and here's another chapter for you, enjoy! 

**Silverwolf130492: **thanks for reviewing! That makes 8 reviews, so, according to the club jewelry, you've finished your necklace. Well, either the two animals I picked for them are that predictable or you can tell what I'm gonna pick, but you may have the order mixed up. I'll give you a quick hint; it's the last two. Enjoy the chapter!

Padfoot-lover1: Thank you so much! And yeah, it is going to be long. I still don't know how long. I'm just planning on writing it until I feel like it's at a point where enough is enough, and that there's no more story to tell. I'm glad you're hooked! Hehe, that was my evil plan all along, lol. Thanks again. Enjoy! 

**Natty123:** Well, I hope you like this chapter better, and thank you for giving me your honest opinion.

Previously 

"Mush!"

The dragon turned his head to look at the person on his back. It glared at Blaise, who grinned back. They flew out of the room and once again, just a few short minutes later, and Draco was back, but this time he transformed back into himself.

"So, you ready for this?" he asked her.

"Yup, I had to get my flight in somehow tonight, didn't I?"

Draco grinned and turned back into the dragon. Hermione walked up to him, and Draco cocked his head to one side, clearly wondering why she was just standing in front of him, instead of getting on his back so they could go to Ginny and Blaise. She gave him a kiss on the head, right between his eyes, and went around his side to get on his back.

Chapter Twelve 

**A New Generation**

Hermione leaned further into Draco as he took off out the window. The night air was cool, but not too cold. They soared up and over the turret of Gryffindor tower. He flew around the castle once and over towards the Quidditch Pitch. They landed right next to Ginny and Blaise.

"Okay, we're going to have to do that again sometime," Hermione, said to Draco as she got off and he morphed back into his usual form.

"Sure, but how come I can only get a kiss when I'm a dragon?" Draco asked her indignantly.

Hermione just smirked and said, "Well, I have an idea of where we could go. I'm not going to tell you, so don't ask," she added when she saw Blaise open his mouth, presumably to ask where she thought they would go. "Ready?"

In answer, Blaise and Ginny both converted into their secondary forms.

"Whoa," Draco said, stepping back.

Blaise had turned into a blue and black phoenix. The head was a deep midnight blue, which gradually changed into black further down his body. His eyes, which should have been a red orange, were the same blue as his eyes normally were. The other oddity of his physique was the silver of the talons embedded in the ground.

When he was through studying Blaise, he turned to Ginny. She had converted to her wolf form. She was Hermione's direct opposite. Smaller and white with a tufted tail instead of the sleek long one. Her eyes were a warm gold. She had dark grey fur, except for an unusual black design around her neck.

"They both have a tattoo like you and me. Blaise's markings are from his natural eye color and the talons and coloring from his tattoo. And Ginny's are the markings around her neck; it's from her tattoo, too. Are you ready yet?"

"Oh, yeah, let's go," Draco, answered.

The two of them transformed into their animal selves and Mione turned tail (**pun intended, I couldn't help it**) and loped away with Ginny following. Draco and Blaise took off into the air. She led them to the Whomping Willow. When she got there, she turned around and held up a paw to tell them to stop. Draco and Blaise touched down to the ground and Ginny sat on her haunches. Hermione streaked towards the base of the tree and pressed a paw against the knot and the tree froze. She went down the tunnel followed closely by Draco Ginny and Blaise over the three of them.

When they finally came out of the tunnel, they were in the Shrieking Shack, though the other three didn't know it. They all turned back into their normal form. Blaise, Draco and Ginny all turned to look at Hermione because she was the only one who knew what the hell they were doing in an old shack that looked as if it would fall down at any minute.

"Mione, what are we doing here? And where exactly is here, anyway?" Ginny asked, breaking the silence first.

"Oh, come on, I know you're all smart, can you honestly tell me that you have no idea where you are?"

"We're in the Shrieking Shack," Draco answered.

"Yes, we are. I was thinking that we could fix it up for a home away from home and other things. We're even allowed to have parties and such here; it's not on school grounds so there's nothing the Professors can do about it. I've asked Dumbledore for permission for seventh years to be allowed to stay in the village all day and to only be required back at school by breakfast. And other than Hogshead weekends, we're the only ones who know how to get here. What do you think?"

There was silence for a few seconds before, "Where do we start?" Ginny asked.

Hermione grinned, took out her wand and waved it around her. The layers of dust vanished. "First, we fix up the holes. Ginny, you and Blaise do upstairs, Draco and I will do down here."

Ginny and Blaise headed up the creaky stairs. Draco turned to Hermione.

"How'd you know how to get here, and how did you know about the spot on the Whomping Willow?"

"Well, you know in third year, the night when they caught Sirius Black and he happened to disappear from right underneath their noses?"

"So you three did have something to do with that!"

"Naturally. You didn't think we would let Harry's innocent godfather be kissed by dementors? I don't think so. But earlier that night, Sirius had kidnapped Ron and Peter Pettigrew, who we thought was just a rat named Scabbers. Peter is the person who betrayed Harry's parents. But anyway, when Sirius grabbed Ron, he brought him here. That's how I knew how to freeze the tree and that it would lead here."

"So that's what Potter and Weasley were talking about. I heard them talking a few days after that if only they had caught Scabbers, yada, yada, yada. So where do we start?"

"Well, just say the spell I just used to get rid of all the dust, and we just need to fix up the furniture and the holes in the wood work."

"Okay, but first, you have to answer the question that you didn't answer earlier."

"What question?" Hermione asked, genuinely confused.

"How come I can get a kiss when I'm a dragon but not now?"

"Oh, you want a kiss on your forehead?"

"I'll take what I can get."

Hermione smiled and walked over to him. She knew he was going to turn his head to get a real kiss, but pretended that she didn't. She got closer and was about to give him his kiss when he brought his head up to catch her lips in a real kiss.

He pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her waist. Her arms went around his neck to hold him tight. You always read about how first kisses are filled with fireworks and explosions. Either that never applies or it just didn't apply to this one. This kiss was filled with passion but it wasn't demanding. It was slow and sweet.

Hermione was the first to pull away. Granted, she didn't want to, but if she didn't she doubted any work would get done at all.

They were both out of breath but managed to hide it, not wanting the other to know how much the kiss had affected them.

"Alright, you got your kiss, time to get some stuff done. We don't want to stay here all night."

"Right, were do we start?"

"Over there." Hermione pointed the next room over.

"I hope they're not fighting," Ginny said as they walked up the stairs and into the first room.

"I doubt that that's what they're doing. If I know Draco he'll try to get a kiss out of her. You remember when he asked her why he could get a kiss when he transformed but not now?"

"Dimly."

"Well, knowing him, he won't leave that unanswered. Come here," Blaise said, he had stayed over by the stairs and was now peering down them into the room Draco and Mione were in. There was a perfect view of the two kissing.

Ginny walked over to the banister and looked down. "That's not just a kiss," she commented.

"No, no its not."

Ginny turned to him, "Speaking of kisses, when do I get the kiss you promised me on the train and when we were out on the Quidditch pitch?"

"Right about now," Blaise answered, walking towards her grinning.

The quartet met back downstairs about 45 minutes later. They inspected their work. The lower level was spotless and looked brand new. There were three main rooms. The front hall occupied the majority of the level. The door was opposite the stairs and on either side of it were two wooden tables. Everything was bare with the exception of the floor, which now housed a large carpet. In each corner was an animal: panther, dragon, wolf and phoenix. Amazingly enough the carpet had been there before they arrived. Hermione had a sneaking suspicion that Dumbledore had something to do with it.

The rooms behind the stairs were the kitchen with counter and stools and a family room. The family room housed a large squashy irreparable couch and newly repaired coffee table and fireplace.

Upstairs held a tiny bathroom with toilet and sink, and two large bedrooms. One had an actual bed and dresser. The other was occupied with two couches and four arm chairs arranged in a circle, two chairs between each couch.

Each room had a different color scheme. The walls of the hall were painted green with ebony wood accents with silver inlaid in places. **(a/n just so you know, all the wood in the house is ebony (black) so like the stairs doors everything, unless I say different)** The other rooms on the first floor were decorated similarly but with dark red walls instead of the hunter green of the front hall. The couch, which they planned to replace next time, was black.

The bathroom was done in marble, and the coloring was entirely gold and silver. The first bedroom, the one with the bed, was the same deep red as the kitchen but the pattern in the paint and wood was silver. The bed had a black blanket on it and one moldy old pillow. The other bedroom, that will from here on out be called the lounge, or something else like that, was a dark midnight blue with the usual ebony wood and silver accents. The couches and armchairs were all black. The odd thing about these was that they seemed to be brand new, almost as if they were just put there. Hermione didn't doubt the possibility that they had been.

"It looks good," Ginny said, "considering what it looked like before."

"Yeah, we'll definitely need to get some real furniture in here, get rid of some of the old stuff, and I'm thinking that Draco and I should leave that to you girls," he added the last bit hopefully.

"Sure, we'll deal with everything, as long as you don't want to come here with us, and have parties and such," Ginny answered him mischievously.

"I want to drag some books in here, not too many, but some of the essentials, like _Hogwarts: A History_," Hermione interjected.

"Somehow I knew we were going to end up having that book in this house," Draco supplied, "but do you really think we need it here? I mean, I'm sure all of us has read it," he added hastily off Mione's glare. He looked around at the other two. "And by us, I mean you and me." It was clear that neither Ginny nor Blaise had read the book.

"I know the two of them haven't, and I'm going to get them to somehow."

"I'll read it, if just to get you to lay off," Blaise said.

Ginny sighed, "Fine, I will, too."

Hermione smiled and yawned. She looked at her watch and her eyes widened. It had been another 45 minutes to go around looking in the rooms and deciding what they wanted to change.

"We should head back to school. We can come back tomorrow, its not like we have classes or anything."

The headed towards the secret passage and transformed back into their animal forms. They then headed down the tunnel and back to the Quidditch pitch. One by one they turned back into themselves.

"I'll just fly back to the castle, my coloring is too dark for me to stand out, and even if I am spotted, there's nothing Filch could do about it."

"Yeah, but Mione and I will need Draco to fly us."

"How bout this," Hermione supplied, "I'll wait here with Blaise while Draco takes you back to Gryffindor tower. Then when Draco comes back, he can take us to our dorms and Blaise can go back to the Slytherin common room. Sound good to everyone?"

They all nodded their assent, and Draco, Blaise and Hermione transformed. Ginny climbed onto Draco's back and they took off. Blaise and Hermione started towards the castle slowly. When they reached the front steps Hermione laid down and put her head on her paws and Blaise landed beside her, standing on the steps.

Draco came back a few minutes later and found them that way. The panther yawned and stretched, showing its silver teeth, and got up. It transformed back into Hermione. She held her arm out and Blaise perched upon it. She gave it a quick kiss on the head and opened the doors to the entrance hall. It took off and out of sight, blending in with the shadows.

Mione closed the door and turned back to face the dragon. She went over to it and ran her hand along his side as she walked around to get on his back. When he knew she was securely on, Draco took off into the night air.

**A/N:** Well, that's it for this chapter, hope you liked it, REVIEW! And remember if you want to see what some of the tattoos and jewelry from the club look like let me know and I'll email you the pictures.


	13. Weekend Surprise

**A/N: **Thank you so much to all of my lovely reviewers! I now have 53! Yeah! I do a little happy dance. And all visuals that I based designs off of are available to all, just let me know if you want to see them in a review! Hint, hint. And now,

**Sirusblackshottie:** Umm, ich spreche Deutsch. (I speak German) so I have no idea what you said in Spanish. Hehe. Clever of me, don't ya think? Anyways, thanks for your review, warm fuzzies that you keep reading and reviewing! So do it again! Hehe, thanks again. Hope you like this chapter.

WannaBArtist: So happy to hear from you again! You were one of my first reviewers! Glad to have you back, and I know what you mean about life being a big pain in the caboose, I had to take tests all this week that were a huge waste of time, I'd read a question and then the possible answers and think, "Did I read that wrong or do you people really expect someone to choose that for an answer?" it was ridiculous. And I'm so glad that someone wants to visit the club again! No worries, they will be going back! I'm gonna deal with something that will make it kinda interesting with the club, so enjoy the chapter, and this rambling note, and review and keep reading. 

**Future movie maker: **I couldn't decide whether or not to recreate with just girls or guys or have the guys be Harry and Ron, but it's not going to be the same in anything but the idea. Enjoy the chapter

**Secretspell311:** Glad you liked the pics; you were the ONLY one who wanted to see 'em. Thanks for the review and hope you like the chappie.

**Danni: **Thanks for reviewing!

**Crazysam:** I'm glad you love it, hope you love this chapter just as much as the previous ones.

**Silverwolf130492:** Thanks so much for your review, did you know that you are the one person who has reviewed my story the most? Still going on the jewelry you'd be working on your claddagh ring! Hehe, thanks so much. And yay, you're the only one who commented on what you think of the Shrieking Shack. Thankys, enjoy!

**Previously**

Mione closed the door and turned back to face the dragon. She went over to it and ran her hand along his side as she walked around to get on his back. When he knew she was securely on, Draco took off into the night air.

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Weekend Surprise**

"Sirius! What are you doing here?" Hermione yelled as he walked into the Entrance Hall.

It was the next morning and Draco and Hermione were dragging themselves down the Grand Staircase to the Great Hall. They had been up for most of the night flying or talking. Hermione had loved flying on Draco's back. They had flown around the castle and forest for about an hour and then went back to their dorms and stayed up talking until the first rays of dawn came creeping through the windows. Now, near noon, they had finally dragged themselves out of bed and down to get food and found Sirius walking into the castle.

"Well, I expect you'll find out a little bit later today. Now, would you like to join me for lunch?"

"Of course! Does Harry know you're coming?"

"Not yet, but he'll know soon," he said, smirking. He turned to Draco, "How you doing, Draco?"

"I'm good, and yourself?"

"Fabulous. Shall we?" he asked Hermione, offering his elbow.

"Indeed," she laughed taking both his and Draco's pro-offered arms.

They looked very strange to the packed hall, walking in 20 minutes late. To Blaise and Ginny, sights such as this had become normal over the summer. To Harry and Ron, and the students who had never been to Silver, the sight was bizarre. Here was the Gryffindor Princess in the middle of the Slytherin Prince – well he used to be – and Sirius Black – who, up until the past year, people had thought to be a murderer – like it was the most normal thing in the world.

The silence that filled the hall upon their entrance went unnoticed to the trio who marched right up to the Head Table and took the three empty seats that were awaiting them. Draco and Sirius had a tiny argument as to who was pulling out Hermione's seat for her on the way up, silently of course and only with looks, but she took the matters into her own hands. She disengaged from their arms and slid into the middle chair before either of them could make a single chivalrous move. They grinned at each other and sat in the chairs on either side of her.

It was only then that the three noticed the silence, and Hermione looked over at the Gryffindor table to find Blaise and Ginny talking – it had become normal for Blaise to be at the Gryffindor table – and Harry and Ron gaping at them like fish out of water. At the looks on their faces she promptly burst into laughter. Whispering erupted throughout the hall.

Ginny and Blaise came up to the Head Table, to the three of them in particular. Ginny gave Sirius a big hug, "You didn't tell me you were coming! Did you know?" she directed this at Hermione.

"Nope, just as surprised as you. And as clueless, he won't tell me why he's here!"

"Sirius," Blaise said.

"Blaise," Sirius answered, shaking his hand, "How you been?"

"Good, and yourself?"

"Couldn't be better," he stated grinning. "I better go talk to Harry before he has a heart attack."

"Good idea. Oh, and Sirius," Hermione stopped him, "he doesn't know about the club or how I helped you with it, or the extent of our relationship. I mean, unless you told him. I figured you would want to tell him yourself."

"You thought right, as usual," Sirius said grinning. "Do you want to help tell the story, or do you feel comfortable leaving it to me?"

"I think you can handle it, now go," she made a shooing motion with her hands.

Sirius stood and strode over to the Gryffindor table and sat down across from Harry and Ron. Ginny joined them as Blaise went back to the Slytherin table.

"I wonder what he's doing here, I mean, it's not like he doesn't have a business to worry about."

"Well, maybe it has something to do with Harry or you."

"Maybe," she answered, clearly unconvinced. "But he said we would find out later."

"Well, then I'm sure we will find out later, so there's no reason to waste the day guessing."

"Good point. What do you say to a game of Quidditch?"

Draco's mouth dropped open, then he shook his head and grinned at her, "Sounds perfect. Who should we get to play? Besides me and you obviously."

Hermione looked around the hall while she spoke, "Well, Harry, Blaise, Ginny and Ron, obviously. I don't know if Sirius still plays or not, but we could probably get him to play. So we need fourteen total, that's 7, so we just need another 7. Hmmm…let me think…wanna help?"

"Well, I don't really know a whole lot of people outside of Slytherin who play Quidditch. But I have a few, I think you are friends with them too."

"Yeah, who'd you have in mind?"

"Terry, Justin, Owen and Kevin," he looked at her expectantly

"Oh, hehe, I knew that," she smiled sheepishly. "Well, I know three other girls who would play too, Padma Patil, Mandy Brocklehurst and Lisa Turpin. They're all Ravenclaws."

"Why don't you go talk to them and I'll talk to the guys. Then we'll meet back here and go talk to Harry, Ron, Sirius, Blaise and Ginny. Sound good?"

"Yup, see you later."

"Hey Gin, before we go down, I've got something for you."

"Yeah?" her face brightened. "What is it?"

Hermione took the broom out from behind her back. It had a large red and gold bow and the handle. "Happy Birthday, Ginny."

A few minutes later the thirteen students and Sirius were gathered in the entrance hall, Quidditch robes on and brooms in hand (or in Ginny's case hands, she hadn't let go of her new Silverwolf or stopped drooling over it since she got it). Harry and Draco carried the chest containing the bludgers, quaffle and snitch. The group walked out of the castle and was momentarily blinded by the bright sunlight that greeted them. They then took off on their brooms to the Quidditch pitch.

"Alright, shall we divide into teams?"

"Who're captains?"

"Well," Sirius looked at the students, "I think Draco and Hermione should be the captains of the teams, after all, it was their idea in the first place."

They all agreed and the two captains came forward.

"Who goes first?"

"Well, your name come first in the alphabet, both first and last name, so you go ahead," Hermione offered.

Draco grinned and looking right into her eyes called, "Oy! Potter! Over here!" More quietly he added, "I want to see you whoop Potter's ass, you hear me?"

"Smarmy git," Hermione growled, although, one could say it was rather affectionate, and as though she had been thinking along the same lines. "Ginny."

"Ron."

"Padma."

"Blaise."

"Sirius."

"Justin."

"Owen."

"Lisa."

"Terry."

"Mandy."

"Kevin."

"Wait a minute, Malfoy, their team doesn't have a seeker."

"Yes they do, Potter," Blaise, answered before Draco could. "I taught her all positions, and the only reason she's not trying out for seeker is because the position isn't free."

Harry stood gaping at him, cleared his throat and said, "Right then, shall we get the game going?"

"Just minutes, Draco's team, charm your robes to be silver, my team, blue. Is that okay with everyone?" They all nodded their agreement and mounted their brooms and took off into the air. Hermione took out her wand and waved it once. The chest opened and the snitch and bludgers went up into the air. Another wave and the quaffle soared straight up above their heads, a third time and there is a loud horn. The players took off into the sky.

Some five hours later, the group trudged back into the castle. They bid each other goodbye and headed in their different directions to shower before dinner, as they were all unattractively sweaty.

Harry was the only one not talking about the games. Plural because in the first two games Hermione had caught the snitch within a half and hour of the start of the game. Draco had then spoken to her in mid air and told her to bring it down a notch. Harry still couldn't believe her skill on a broom. No one had ever beaten him at getting the snitch, not including in third year, but that didn't count because of the dementors. The thoughts that kept running through her head was, "But I thought she hated broomsticks," and "how did she get to be so good?" He just couldn't believe that Hermione of all people was better than him at Quidditch.

"Harry, mate, you okay? You haven't said a single word since we left the pitch." Ron was looking at him funny.

"Yeah, I wonder how she got so good. I mean, even I had to have training with the entire team before I got anywhere near good."

That was the extent of the boys' conversation as they headed towards Gryffindor tower and on their way down to dinner a little while later.

Meanwhile, Hermione and Draco were both dragging their feet up the stairs to the portrait of the Marauders.

"Ah, it looks like you've been playing Quidditch. Who won?" Lupin asked the duo.

"My team," Hermione stated, smiling triumphantly, "three times."

"It's because she's a bloody brilliant seeker and makes your son," he jabbed a finger at James, "look like a pansy on a broom. Would probably make you look like one too, because from what I hear, your son is better than you were."

"Are you planning on trying to bump him off the position?"

"No, of course not, I would never do that!" Hermione cried indignantly. "Besides, I prefer the position of chaser to seeker. There's more action throughout the entire game. Well, we've got to go shower before dinner, chaos."

The portrait swung open and the two stepped inside. As soon as they were in, Hermione took off running to the bathroom, calling over her shoulder, "I get the bathroom first!" Draco sighed and went into his room. He took off his Quidditch robes and put his broom and gear away and waited for Hermione to be finished in the bathroom.

About half an hour later (Hermione gets ready speedily, today at least) they went down to the Great Hall for dinner.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"Well, Harry has either been completely silent with his mouth hanging open or talking about you and you beating him. Ron had to physically move him to the showers," answered Ginny rolling her eyes.

"I feel kinda bad about that, but I wanted to beat Draco's team so…yeah. I suppose I could have slowed it down a bit and not caught it the first time I saw it, but I just had this huge rush, and besides I have a better broom."

Blaise interjected, "He'll get over it, can we go get dinner?"

The quartet walked into the Great Hall and went and sat at a table. Hogwarts had greatly changed the set up of the Hall. Now, breakfast and lunch were the only meals where the House tables were present. And only during special events like holidays were they present for dinner. Every other night, the long tables were replaced with smaller tables. Each table was about a fourth of one of the regular tables. The smaller tables allowed the students to sit with students from other houses. Each of the smaller tables sat twenty. The four went and sat at a table, Ginny and Hermione on one side and Blaise and Draco across from them. Over the next couple minutes the students who had played with them earlier in the day came and sat down.

Hermione and Ginny had gotten to be very good friends with Padma Patil, Mandy Brocklehurst and Lisa Turpin. They had often gone to Hogsmeade together to talk about anything and everything. The girls sat down and the five of them immediately started talking about Hermione's performance and then moving on to talk about the girls in their year. Draco and Blaise rolled their eyes at each other and turned away from the girls as the guys came and sat down on either side of them. The group of Quidditch players had all become closer over the previous year, not including Draco and Blaise though, because the majority of them were taking at least a couple of the same classes.

The group all sitting together started with a couple sitting down, someone coming over to talk and others just joined in. Now, the big group ate together every day and had yet to get tired of each other. No one seemed to mind Draco and Blaise joining and they included them in their talks quite easily.

"Mione, Draco," the two looked up to see who had addressed them. "After dinner you are to meet in my study after dinner to discuss plans for the year. Professors Dumbledore, Snape, Sprout and Vector will be there as well as Sirius Black and myself. I assume you both know where my office is?"

"Yes professor."

"Good, see you shortly," and with that Professor McGonagall walked off toward the Head Table.

**A/N:** I'M SO SORRY! I never meant for it to be such a long break! My muse decided to take a spring break. I hope you liked the chapter, I also hope to have a new one up for you relatively soon. Review!


	14. Party Plans and Party Places

**A/N:** Once again, I'm sorry that you had to wait so long last time, it felt like it was forever, at least to me it did. Oh, and just to let anyone who doesn't know what it is, onyx is a gemstone, most commonly black and completely opaque.

STORY RELATED: At the end of the last chapter I had McGonagall say Mione, well, she wouldn't really say that and the only reason she did was because it was originally going to be Sirius saying it. So in the previously section, it will be more IC (in character). Sorry bout that.

**Robin777:** I love Hermione playing Quidditch and you never hear of her being a seeker and especially not her beating Harry, and besides, Harry needed to be knocked off his high horse sometime, so I figured why not and did it anyway.

**SeDuCtiVe: **Thanks for the review, I love getting reviews! Hehehe. Glad you liked the jewelry, I want that claddagh ring so that's why I included it. And the fact that we haven't heard anymore about the shrieking shack so I figured I'd put that in too, and yes it is going to come to be a hand out for them. And I'm thinking of doing another story, but I haven't decided yet. You'll see eventually.

**WannaBArtist:** Well, they'll get back to the club eventually. In the meantime, the club is going to come to them. Hehehe, but you didn't hear that from me.

**Sirusblackshottie:** Thanks for cluing me into my little McGonagall mix up! Yeah, I didn't really like French and so I took German, but I can't take that anymore because my new school doesn't offer it so…keinen Deutsch. Oh and in response, Ich bin gut. Und du? That means, I'm good. And you? Enjoy.

**Silverwolf130492:** You really are going to have like all the jewelry and even more, if there was more. Lol! Power! You probably have the most power where reviewers are concerned. If that applies…. ich weis nicht (I don't know).

**Future movie maker:** Thanks, and the wait is over…enjoy this chapter.

**Previously**

"Hermione, Draco," the two looked up to see who had addressed them. "After dinner you are to meet in my study after dinner to discuss plans for the year. Professors Dumbledore, Snape, Sprout and Vector will be there as well as Sirius Black and myself. I assume you both know where my office is?"

"Yes professor."

"Good, see you shortly," and with that Professor McGonagall walked off toward the Head Table.

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Party Plans and Party Places**

**"**Sirius, I can't believe you didn't tell me that you were going to do this! I mean, I've only seen you practically every night over the summer and you couldn't tell me this," Hermione inquired incredulously. "Were you even planning on telling me? Or were you just gonna say, 'Hey, Mione, guess what. I've already set up an awesome future for you and you don't have to do a thing about it!' This is me we're talking about! I have to be able to do something. I don't just accept things that are given to me. I like to work for them. " She stopped ranting for a minute and looked thoughtful, "Although, on second thought, I don't know how to set up a business, so maybe that part wouldn't be too bad," she turned back to him, blazing once again, "but that doesn't mean you're off the hook, you still should have told me."

They were in the Heads Common Room. Sirius was staying with them while at the castle. At the moment, he was reclining on the sofa facing the portrait hole while Hermione ranted and raved, pacing in front of him. Draco had gone to the Slytherin common room to talk to Blaise about something or the other, then the five of them were going to go to Hogsmeade.

"Look, Hermione. I can understand why you're upset with me, and I was planning on telling you exactly like this, because I wanted to surprise you. Now can I please tell you about it? I haven't exactly had a chance to do so."

Hermione had the grace to look sheepish, "Sorry, go ahead, tell me," and she sat down beside him, legs tucked up underneath her facing him.

"Well, the premises is in Hogsmeade so it's going to be an entirely magical clientele and staff. And this one is going to be called Onyx and have the theme of your original idea."

"Oooh! The black? Wait, was that the idea where the stones are onyx and the silver gets more detailed?"

"Yup, and so the same rule will apply, the tables, lamps, chairs, glasses, etc., everything will be black."

"Thank you so much! This is the best graduation gift I have ever, and frankly, probably ever will receive. Although, seeing as how I haven't graduated from anything, I wouldn't know."

"Well, I originally wasn't going to tell you until your graduation, but you know me. I can't keep patient. And the best part is, it's almost finished. The builders are ahead of schedule; it'll be finished by Halloween. That's why I said I could host the ball. I figured that could be the grand opening. What do you think? Is that okay with you? It is your club after all."

"I think that's a brilliant idea. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you were busy thinking of _someone_ else," he replied with a wink.

"Sirius! I have no idea what you're talking about," she said loftily.

"No, of course you don't. Now, shall we wait for Draco to come back, or do you think we can just fill him in on the plans we make when he gets back?"

"We can just fill him in."

"What is it?"

"What?"

"Blaise, come on, how long have I known you?" They were walking the halls, Blaise walking with Draco up towards Gryffindor tower to get Ginny. They were going back to the Head Dorms and then to go see…something in Hogsmeade. Sirius hadn't been very clear on what.

"I dunno, couple years."

"Right, it's pretty much gotten to the point where I can tell when there's something you want to say but you don't know how to say it. This is one of those times. So, what is it?"

Blaise stared at Draco open mouthed. "Well, Ginny, Harry, Ron and I all wanted to know, and I kinda drew the short stick. So, have you…I mean…are you…"

"You want to know if Hermione and I are dating?"

"Yeah."

"No, we're not. That's not to say that I don't wish we were, but sometimes I get the feeling that she would just rather be friends and not complicate things, so I've just let it go. Why, do you guys think we're dating?"

"Basically, you're both getting on all of our nerves with all the flirting and yet not getting together. Will you just ask her out already?"

"Well what about you and Ginny?" Draco asked as they came within view of the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"I'm planning on asking her to the Halloween Ball. Why don't you ask Mione?"

"Because we're already going together. It's custom for Heads to go with each other to school functions."

"Oh, well-"

"Hey, guys! Ready to go?" Ginny came bounding up to them and turning them around, hooked each of her arms through one of the guys'. "What were you talking about?"

"Draco and Mione, and how they're not a couple, but going to the Ball because its required of them."

Ginny turned to look at Blaise as all this rushed out his mouth, then turned to look at Draco, "So, what he's telling me is, you two aren't dating, but you're going to the Halloween Ball because its tradition for Head Boy and Head Girl to go to functions together?"

"Yeah, I mean, I would ask her even if we didn't have to go together though. I like her, it's just that half the time I think she wants to be a couple or whatever and the other half I think she just wants to be friends."

Ginny snorted, "The only kind of 'friends' she wants to be with you includes benefits," Draco looked at her. "And I think you should still ask her if she wants to go to the ball with you," Draco opened his mouth but Ginny cut him off with a hand, "just so she knows that you want to go with her by choice. I also think that you should ask her out, or jump her, I'm sure she wouldn't object."

"Okay, hold up a second here. So you're saying that Hermione thinks I'm just going to the ball with her because I have to?"

"Yup."

"And that I should either ask her out or jump her."

"Well, I wasn't serious about the jumping her bit. But I think you should make it clear your interested, at the least, if you aren't going to out-and-out ask her."

"Mate," Blaise interjected, "I think girls are complicated."

"No shit, Sherlock."

"What's Sherlock?"

"He's a fictional character from muggle books. He's a detective."

"Gotcha."

"Well, now that we've all had our Muggle Studies lesson for the day, do you think we could go in?"

They had arrived at the portrait of the Marauders. Draco gave the password and climbed into the common room. Blaise held Ginny back.

"Gin, just so no one gets to you before me, wanna go to the ball with me?"

"You had to ask?"

Grinning, the two of them climbed through the portrait hold, somehow, their hands had come together, making it very hard to climb through individually.

"You might as well turn right back around, we're going out," Hermione said.

"Where to?"

"A club," answered Sirius.

Blaise looked at Hermione, "Are we walking?"

"I don't know about you, but the three of us," she pointed to herself, Sirius and Ginny, "will be. You and Draco, entirely up to you. Read?"

"Lets go.

The group crossed to the portrait and went through. The group that came out the other side was strange. In the lead was a large black panther, closely followed by a smallish dragon and an unusually large, black, shaggy dog. After the dog came a wolf with a dark blue phoenix flying overhead. They made their way out of the castle and towards the whomping willow. At the head of the group, the panther hunkered down and passed underneath the boughs of the tree and pressed a paw to a knot at the base. The tree froze and the group went into the tunnel.

They had all converted to their natural forms by the time they emerged in the shack. Sirius looked around in awe.

"What did you guys do to this place?"

"Nothing really. It was pretty much set up like this when we got here. A few of the things were new, but the majority of them were from when you guys used it and rather old and dusty. The carpet is one of the new things. It's like it was made for us."

"It probably was. If I know Dumbledore, which I do, then he knew you would want to use this place and what your animal forms would be. He most likely had the rug made for you guys."

"Yeah, Mione, that does make sense," Ginny cut in, "I mean, this is Dumbledore, after all."

"Yeah. Okay Sirius, where are we going?"

"Out the doors."

"Gee," Hermione countered, "that was informative. You wouldn't want to give us any more information would you?"

"Not really, no," he answered with a grin. "Come on, follow me."

The group trudged out the doors and down the lane. They came upon the main street, which was well lit. Sirius led them down the road until they came to an unobtrusive building. It was smallish and completely black. Above the door, where some muggle houses put the numbered address of the house (at least in America), was one word: Onyx. It was made out of shimmering…onyx. This onyx seemed to reflect the light in a different way and seemed to draw the eye. They approached and went through the door. It was almost a direct mirror copy of Silver. The room was oriented reversely and the colors were opposite. Where there was shimmering silver and grey at Silver, there was darkly winking onyx and black marble in Onyx. The booths were made of black suede and one wall was covered in couches and low tables instead of booths. The group went over to this side and sat down.

The club was empty but seemed to be ready for business. The bar was stocked and Hermione went behind the bar and grabbed a bottle of Firewhisky. She opened it up and took a drink. She came out from behind the counter, walked over to the group and offered the bottle to Draco. Draco took the proffered bottle and downed a large amount before passing it to Sirius on his left. The bottle went around again and was then put on the table, where it stayed.

"So, I take it this is Onyx? A new club?"

"No, Draco, this is Opal, an old club," Hermione answered him sarcastically. The two of them were in one chair. Draco had flopped down and when Hermione had come back, had put his arm around her waist and pulled her down onto his lap. She was now leaning into his chest, one arm around his shoulders the other was fiddling with her wand. He was leaning back into the chair with his left arm around her back, coming up slightly to play with her long ponytail. His right arm was playing with a hole in the knee of Hermione's jeans.

"So when did you two do this," Blaise asked, "this summer, I presume?"

"No, I just found out about it tonight," Hermione said, shooting Sirius a look.

"It was going to be her graduation present, but then I decided I couldn't wait, and then building went faster than expected, so…we're going to have the Halloween Ball here, as the grand opening. In fact, I was hoping I could count on you guys to help Hermione and me come up with an idea on how to keep underage wizards from drinking in here. We were wondering if we should use the jewelry again or something different."

They all sat in silence for several minutes. Looking around at each other, it seemed that no one had any ideas.

"Why don't you still use the jewelry, but use different pieces for different groups as well as attendance?" Draco asked.

All heads turned to him, and Hermione tried to clarify the idea, "You mean, like rings for underaged wizards and bracelets or necklaces for wizards of age?"

"Yeah, and you could still do the whole adding detail thing."

"Good idea, Draco," Sirius said.

"Now, what jewelry should we use," Hermione directed this question at Sirius. "I mean, at Silver, we don't have the guys wearing necklaces, They usually just have a bracelet. We could do rings for the younger ones and bracelets for the wizards of age and necklaces for the witches of age. And instead of the stone matching your eyes, it will, naturally, be onyx."

"Mione," Ginny started, "that's brilliant!"

"Draco, you're a genius!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Well," Blaise broke off. He yawned hugely and then continued, "Now that that's settled, do you think we could go to bed?"

They all laughed at him, but started off anyways. When they got to the shack, Draco held Hermione back at the doorway. "Want to go flying?" he asked her. She gave him a look that clearly said, 'You need to ask?'.

"You guys go ahead," Hermione called, "we're going to fly back."

"Night!"

The two of them re-entered the night. Hermione turned to look at him expectantly.

"Mione, before we go, can I ask you something?" he started nervously. She looked apprehensive but nodded anyway. "Well, I was wondering…I mean, I know we have to go anyway…" he broke off, running his hand through his hair anxiously. "What I'm trying to say is, I know we have to go to the Halloween Ball together and everything, for appearance and all, but would you like to go with me as my date?" He looked down, he couldn't look at her. She wasn't answering, that couldn't be good.

Finally, after a few minutes, she lifted his head by his chin. He looked up at her and saw her smiling face. "Of course," she was smiling that smile, the one that he had only begun to see after the final battle last year, the one that he loved to see. He grinned back at her and she threw herself into his arms and laughed as she hugged him. She screamed as he changed mid-hug and found herself hugging a dragon. "I'll kill you for that," she told the dragon. She let go of him and he went down to his four legs and waited for her to climb on. She climbed onto his back and hit him on his head, "Please never do that again."

They soared up into the night sky, Hermione laughed and reached up as they flew, trying to touch the stars.

**A/N:** Well, I decided to give it a very mushy and clichéd ending. Hope to update soon and to get many reviews!


	15. Filme und Facher

**A/N:** I'm hoping this isn't too long of a wait between this chapter and the last. Hope you all like the chapter! I CHANGED PART OF CHAPTER 9, AND IT WILL COME INTO PLAY IN A LATER CHAPTER! I'll put the part I changed at the end of this chapter, along with what it originally said, so now, enjoy. Sorry this chapter isn't very long.

**Robin777:** Glad you liked it, I was trying to figure out how to get the club to them, and it seemed like a logical conclusion. Hope you like the new chapter.

**Future movie maker:** Thanks very much, and you don't have to wait anymore, enjoy.

**WannaBArtist:** Aww, shucks blushes. That's so nice, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Hope you like this chapter just as much!

**IamSiriusgrl:** Thank you, hope you like the chapter.

**CryMeTearsOfFire:** Thank you so much for pointing that out, I didn't remember that, but none of them but Ginny was there in the Chamber of Secrets and I don't think that she was really in a right state of mind to remember that, Blaise was probably not looking for a feather to be pulled out, and Ginny was probably more interested in looking at his human ass than his bird ass. Now the other two probably did know it, but we'll just say that they had a momentary lack of memory. We'll just say that I knew what I did all along and that I did it on purpose. Hehehe, thanks for reviewing and I hope you like this chapter.

**Previously**

They soared up into the night sky, Hermione laughed and reached up as they flew, trying to touch the stars.

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Filme und Fächer**

The next day was their last day of freedom before the start of term. Hermione and Draco went down to breakfast and right up to Professor Dumbledore.

"Excuse us, sir," Draco started.

Dumbledore turned to the two students. "How may I help the two of you on this fine morning?"

"Well, as you know, the theme for the Halloween Ball is going to be costumes from Muggle TV and movies, so we were thinking we could have a movie showing at least one day every weekend, starting tonight, going until the weekend of the ball. We were hoping that we would be able to section the Great Hall off so that we could show two movies simultaneously."

"That sounds like a splendid idea. Would you like me to make an announcement to the school?"

"Oh, could you?" Hermione asked. "We're going to have the first movie right after lunch and the second right after dinner.

"Have you decided what the movies will be?"

"One of Blaise's personal favorites, The Mummy and Spider-man. And we're going to do the same next weekend, movies after lunch and dinner. Make sure to let them all know that next weekend we're watching the sequels of the movies we're watching today."

"All right, I will make an announcement about it shortly."

The time between breakfast and lunch was the first period of time when Draco and Hermione were not together. She was spending that time with Harry, Ron and Ginny today. They went outside and sat under a tree by the lake.

"So, Mione, we know how your summer went," Ron started, "so I want to hear about Harry's."

"Yeah, me too."

"Well, as you know, I no longer had to stay at the Dursley's this summer, since Voldemort is gone for good and everything, so I got my own flat in London. The building it's in is comprised entirely of witches and wizards."

"Really? I'd love to get to see it I was a little busy this summer."

"I know, Mione, don't worry, you'll see it. But a few days after I got moved in, there was another girl moving in next door to me. It was Padma Patil. I helped her move in, and we got to talking."

The girls looked at him in wide-eyed wonder. "Has Harry Potter finally found a girl who all four of us like? I mean, you don't have any quarrels with her do you, Ron? You two seem to be on pretty friendly terms," Hermione said.

"Yeah, we talk sometimes."

"Wow, Harry. Anyways, I say good choice," Ginny said to him.

Harry was blushing but continued his story, telling them how they started getting to know each other pretty well and how he was going to ask her to the Halloween Ball.

"That's great, mate, why didn't you tell us sooner?" Ron asked.

"Well, I wasn't sure."

"I wonder why Padma didn't say anything to us when we saw her over the summer," Hermione said to Ginny.

They spent the rest of the morning talking about their individual summers and what classes they were taking, what they wanted to do after Hogwarts, what life was going to be like after Hogwarts, etc.

The four went inside the castle for lunch, laughing uproariously at something Ron had said. He was looking indignant, "But I thought that's what she said!"

"How do you get, "bite people like Blaise" from "by people like Blaise?" Hermione asked him in between gasps of breath and giggles. "Honestly."

Still chuckling, they went and sat at the Gryffindor table. "So, are you guys going to go to the movie?" Ginny asked the boys.

"You bet!" Ron exclaimed excitedly shoveling food onto his plate.

"Of course, we wouldn't miss anything our Mione set up," Harry said, grinning at the pair of them.

After lunch, the tables were cleared by Draco with a wave of his wand and were replaced by an assortment of couches, armchairs and blankets with pillows by Hermione. When she had done that, she turned to where the teachers table normally stood. With a flick of her wand, a large white screen appeared. The two looked around at their handiwork. Draco added a few floating candles for just a little light, and Hermione went out the doors to face the crowd.

Out in the Entrance Hall, Sirius had conjured a concessions stand and he and Harry were manning it. They grinned when they saw her and she grinned back when she saw the number of students waiting…with popcorn and drink.

She was amazed so many had come. "I think other people thought it was as much of a brilliant idea as I did," a voice whispered in her ear.

She spun around and hugged Draco tightly. "Thank you for helping me."She pulled away reluctantly, as did Draco, and turned to face the crowd. "Excuse me," a hush fell over the crowd. "We would like to welcome you to the first of many Hogwarts Movie Weekends. As you should all know by now, the theme of the Halloween Ball this year is muggle media, specifically movies and television. These movies should help to give you ideas of costumes. And if you want to talk about how to make one of the costumes or anything, just come and ask me. At the end of the movie, please feel free to make suggestions for upcoming movies."

"Now," Draco added, "when you get in there, there are couches, chairs and blankets spread throughout the Hall, take a seat, and once everyone is ready, we'll start the movie."

They opened the doors and rushed to their special couch, and were almost caught in the crowd. There was a burst of noise as friends were trying to find friends and a place where they could all sit. The couches were long and slightly curved so that more people could fit on one. Blaise and Ginny walked over to the two of them, Blaise with his arm around Ginny's waist. Hermione noticed this and raised her eyebrow at Draco, who looked just as surprised as she was. Both Blaise and Ginny were grinning broadly.

"Hey, guys," Blaise called, "think you could save us a seat?"

"I don't know, Blaise," Draco replied, "there may not be enough room."

Hermione and Draco were sitting at the left end of the 6-person couch. They had specifically made them longer so groups of friends could sit together. Each sofa had a chair on either end and a blanket and several cushions on the ground in front of them. Draco was at the very end with Hermione next to him. She was leaning into him, his arm around her shoulders, with her feet tucked up underneath her to the left. Blaise sat down next to her and she sat up and gave him a hug.

"When did this happen?"

Blaise grinned back at his cousin, "Last night, when I asked her to go to the ball with me."

"You did? That's great, you two deserve each other."

"Thanks, Mione. And what about you and Draco?"

Hermione bit her bottom lip and smiled before answering, "He asked me to the ball last night, too. I thought he was just going with me because we have to. I'm really glad that he asked me outright."

"You can thank me for that," Blaise grinned at her, "I'm the one who told him to."

Hermione threw herself into his arms for an even bigger hug than before.

By the time the movie started the Great Hall was packed with the entire student body and the majority of the faculty. The group around them consisted of the group they normally ate with. Padma Patil was sitting on Ginny's other side, with Harry's arm around her shoulder. The rest of the group was on the blanket on the floor and the two armchairs on either end.

The end of the movie came too quickly for Hermione, Draco, Blaise, Ginny, Harry and Padma. All of them were loving the time they were getting to spend in the company of the other while just sitting and watching a movie. They didn't immediately move and only did when Hermione remembered that they had to clean up. The six of them got up and stretched and waved their wands and the room was back to normal.

The rest of the day preceded without incident. Those same six went flying in the remaining 2 hours before dinner. They then went back to the castle and Hermione and Draco set up for the next movie, Spider-man. The same situation repeated itself. By the end of the movie, Hermione was fast asleep, having seen the movie many times herself, and Draco didn't want to move, he didn't want to wake her up. Everyone got up and left. Blaise and Ginny stayed behind. Ginny looked at the sleeping Hermione and cast a small spell on her to not wake up.

"Go ahead and take her up to bed, we'll take care of this."

"Are you sure?"

"Go," she pointed imperiously at the doors, and Draco smiled appreciatively.

The next morning was the first day of classes. Schedules were handed out at breakfast.

"Hey guys," Hermione said as she walked into the Hall and sat in the space between Harry and Ron, "what's up?"

"New course schedules," Harry said glumly. Ron grunted and once again, Hermione was impressed that he could make any noise what so ever because his mouth was stuffed to bursting point with food.

Hermione grabbed the schedule and looked over it enthusiastically, "Double Defense Against the Dark Arts first, followed by Transfiguration. Not too bad of a Monday morning. Then in the afternoon I've got Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes and Charms. What have you lot got?" she asked Harry, Ron and Ginny.

"Well, I have everything you do," Ginny said. "We are taking all the same classes, you and I."

"The two of us have Herbology when you two have Ancient Runes. But that's in the afternoon," Harry said, as Ron was still shoveling food into his mouth.

"I still haven't heard who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is going to be. Have you?" Ginny asked the group while looking up at the staff table. There didn't seem to be any new faces.

"You know, that's right, I haven't either. Maybe they've just skipped breakfast.

**CHAPTER NINE REPOST:**

**ORIGINAL**

"Well…I have always loved Ancient Greece, so I was going to go as Olympias from the muggle movie Alexander, even though it was horribly inaccurate, but I love the red dress. So that's who I'm going to be. I even…" she looked down blushing.

REPOSTED VERSION 

"Well…I have always loved Ancient Egypt, and so has Ginny, so we are going as Anck-su-namun and Nefertiri. They're characters from the muggle movie, The Mummy. We both love that movie, and there are perfect costumes for us to wear, and provide a little side entertainment," she said with a mischievous smile on her face. "So that's who I'm going to be. I even…" she looked down blushing.

**A/N:** The reason I changed it, is because of Ginny's and Hermione's relationship, just the fact that they're so close, and I like those costumes more that I like the original costumes I had planned for them.


	16. Professor Andreios

**A/N:** Well, hope this chapter is up soon enough for all! And thank you for all the reviews! I got a ton this chapter! Thank you so much!

**Skysongscry:** I'm so sorry for not replying to your review in the last chapter, but I had finished the chapter and was just getting ready to post it when I got your review. I'm so glad that you like my story, and how long did it take you to read the entire thing?

**Sirusblackshottie:** Thank you, and continuing…just scroll down.

**Robin777:** Thanks so much. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

**WannaBArtist:** You're not retarded, I've done that before anyway. And I'm the same way about the two civilizations. And I just saw The Mummy Returns on TV again, and I decided to use outfits from the movie, that way Ginny and Mione could have the same style of costume. Hope you like the new chapter.

**Natty123:** Thank you for your review, and I hope this was updated fast enough for you.

**Kukui Cricket:** Thanks for reviewing, and I'm with you in the whole 'how do you get "Ethan" from "I'm going to stand in the sun"?' And don't worry about the blabbing thing; I do it all the time.

**Benjimaddenfan:** Thanks for your review and enjoy the chapter!

**IamSiriusgrl:** I hope I got this up fast enough for you, enjoy!

**Future movie maker:** I'm glad you like it so much, I hope you continue to enjoy it as much as you have. And sorry…it's not Sirius…it's not even Lupin or Tonks…it's a new character.

**Silverwolf130492:** Hey! I was getting worried, you're usually one of the first reviews I get, and so I got a little worried when I didn't hear from you for an entire chapter. And there should be plenty of fluffy chapters, I like em too. I'm glad you approved of the movie choices. The majority of the movies are going to be along the lines of fantasy or sci-fi or something that would have fun costumes. Even comic book movies have good costumes. And you're the first person who commented on Harry and Padma as a couple, I thought they would make an interesting couple, so I figured, why not, and Harry's got a thing for Ravenclaws anyway.

**Alexandragurl:** okay, will do, or have done, whatever

**Previously**

"I still haven't heard who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is going to be. Have you?" Ginny asked the group while looking up at the staff table. There didn't seem to be any new faces.

"You know, that's right, I haven't either. Maybe they've just skipped breakfast."

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Professor Andreios**

Just then, the doors to the hall opened and in walked a man none of the students had seen before. He was tall and looked to be in his mid to late twenties. He had dark brown hair coupled with warm brown eyes. He was fairly tan and seemed to be built. He did not wear wizard's robes but muggle clothes. His dark blue jeans fit him nicely without being too baggy or too tight. The charcoal grey shirt hugged his figure underneath the knee length leather jacket he wore. As he walked toward the teacher's table, many girls stopped mid-conversation or mid-bite and stared as he passed.

"Oh. My. God," Parvati said. "Who in the name of Merlin is that?"

"I have no idea," Lavender said in an awed voice. "Mione, you're Head Girl, who is he?"

"I don't know," she answered, utterly confused. "He can't be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Can he? He seems much too young."

"Students, may I please have your attention for a moment? This is our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor," Dumbledore said. "Professor Andreios. He has kindly accepted the teaching position. Please give him a warm welcome."

Andreios bowed to the students and sat down next to Dumbledore amid a loud round of applause.

"Holy shit, he's going to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher! I so wish I was till taking that class now," Lavender said staring at him.

"I get to start my day of with _that_," Hermione said, "I'm not complaining. Well see you guys later," she said, finishing her goblet of pumpkin juice and exiting the Hall with Ginny.

The moment Andreios strode into the room and Draco got a good look at him, he turned to see Hermione's reaction, as did Blaise in regards to Ginny. From the reactions of the girls all around them, they had expected to find Hermione and Ginny speechless and openly gawking Andreios. Instead, they saw the two girls eating their breakfast and conversing in a normal manner with Parvati and Lavender. When they saw the girls get up to leave, they hurried after them.

"So, what do you two think of the new Dark Arts teacher?"

"What do you mean?"

"Hermione, don't act all innocent with me," Draco said, putting an arm around her shoulder, "you know perfectly well what I mean."

"Oh, all right. I supposed you wouldn't let me _not_ answer."

"Nope."

"Well, can't you at least ask Ginny first?"

"After a question like that?" he looked over at Blaise and Ginny, who seemed to be a mirror image of Hermione and Draco, Blaise's arm around Ginny's shoulder, Ginny's arm around his back. Blaise shook his head as if to say, "sounds fishy to me too, I wouldn't let it go." "I don't think so."

"Fine, I suppose he's quite handsome, if that's the kind of guy you like. Which I don't."

"Oh? So what kind of guys do you like?"

"And I like my guys with blonde hair," she reached up and tugged a lock of Draco's hair, "eyes of an indeterminable color," she touched his temple. Draco smiled while Blaise and Ginny grinned while faking being sick. "Besides, he's already in love with someone and I don't really fancy being with a shapeshifter. Being able to change shape without a wand freaks me out."

Draco, Blaise and Ginny all stopped mid-stride and Hermione, who had kept walking, stopped when she realized they weren't with her.

"He's a what?"

"Honestly, Blaise, I know you've heard of shape shifters before. And what do you think Zane is?"

"Who's Zane?" Draco asked.

"The bouncer at Sirius' club, remember? He was named after Zane Cobriana, a king long ago who married Danica Shardae, an avian. The two different kinds, Serpiente and Avian, had been at war for longer than anyone could remember. The two of them got married, each being the royal of their kind, and ended the feud, eventually. Well, Zane, who is a descendent of the serpiente line, was named after him and is obviously a shape shifter. He told me all about it, it's really very fascinating. He sold the story to a muggle author who made it into a novel called _Hawksong_…what?"

The other three had stood in shocked silence throughout this little speech and their mouths were hanging open. "Have I told you how much I love the fact that you can just spout this stuff off? It always makes me feel a little bit smarter," Draco said walking over to her and giving her a quick kiss on the mouth before draping his arm around her waist and setting off. She smiled to herself and put her own arm around her middle to hold the hand on her waist.

"Hermione, that still doesn't explain how you knew he was a shape shifter, you weren't even within 12 feet of him. How could you tell?"

"I've spent enough time around them at the club, Blaise. I'm the one who hired them, technically speaking."

They walked through the castle until they reached the Head Dorms. Hermione walked in and grabbed her bag, which she had forgotten that morning, and walked right back out. The four then headed up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The four of them plus Harry, Mandy, Justin, Owen and Lisa were in the N.E.W.T. DADA class. There were other people of course, but they aren't really addressed in this story. Much to everyone's surprise, Ron had decided that he wanted to become a healer. Once he started paying attention in class, he had become quite adept and as good as Hermione in Herbology and certain aspects of Charms, generally those pertaining to healing. He therefore, was in the standard DADA class. The N.E.W.T. DADA class was for those who wanted to work with curses and dark magic.

Harry still wanted to be an Auror, though it was harder than ever to become one. The ministry would take on a new Auror…well they hadn't for a couple years now, but Harry was bound and determine to become one.

It was a few minutes before the new professor arrived at the classroom. He was still in the muggle clothes. When he got closer, Mione's eyes widened, "Wait a minute…" she said so softly that only Ginny, who was standing less than a foot away, could hear her. "It can't be…"

"Mione?"

Hermione's attention snapped onto Ginny, "Yeah?"

"What?"

"It's…I mean he's…I didn't know…I should've guessed…"

"Hermione, what is it?

"That's Rei."

"You've got to be kidding."

"I'm not. I wonder why he's here."

"I dunno, well, obviously besides to teach DADA."

Andreios reached them and did a double take when he saw Hermione. "Hermione?"

"Yep," she said and gave him a small hug, "what are you doing here? Why aren't you in London? And how come you never told me that a) your full name was Andreios and b) that you were going to be teaching here?" she slapped him on the arm.

"Well, to answer the first question, I didn't think it really mattered. And the second one, I wanted to surprise you. Did I do a good job?"

"Too good. You had help, didn't you?"

Andreios looked sheepish, "Well…"

"Say no more, it was Sirius, right?"

"Yeah, he told the Headmaster that I wouldn't be able to make it until the day term started and that I didn't want any big introduction or anything."

"It so figures," Hermione said chuckling. She looked at his clothes again. "So, how hard is it going to be to get used to wearing wizards robes?"

"Not hard at all, considering I won't be wearing them. Professor Dumbledore has kindly allowed me to continue wearing street clothes."

The students stood gaping at him, "How come we're not? I mean, okay, as 7th years we only have to wear the robes and not the rest of the uniform, but how come you don't have to even wear the outer robes?"

"Because my little Danica," he said standing by her side and putting an arm around her shoulders, whispering to her, "I am a teacher, and you are not."

"Humph."

"Well, shall we go in?"

They went in and the four took their seats talking amongst themselves while Andreios set up his things. Other Students came in over the next several minutes and the class passes without incidence. There was the natural introduction and questioning of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts, it came with the post, and the introductions of the students.

"Okay, Hermione, spill it," Ginny ordered at the end of class. All three of them had been bursting to know how she knew this mysterious new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and now they had the chance to grill her about it.

"Spill what?"

"Oh come on, you know what we mean. How do you know him?"

"Aww, Draco, are you jealous? If you are, that's twice in one morning."

"Yes, I am."

"Aww," she said again, this time patting his cheek, "I already told you, you don't have anything to worry about."

"Okay, but we're still curious, Mione," Blaise said.

"Okay fine. Well, as you know, I helped bring Sirius back from beyond the veil and start his club, right? Good. Well, Andreios was one of the guys hired to put some protective spells around the club, because Voldemort was still powerful when we started it. He was there for a while, and when he was done with the spells he helped us set up the rest of the club. One day, I had this really horrible headache and he was really nice and helped me out, after that we became pretty good friends. He stayed at the club for a while bartending, but was starting a new job at the end of the summer. Huh, didn't really think of that. So, that's it. That's how I know Rei."

The other three just looked at her, "Uh, Mione?"

"Yes, Blaise?"

"Could you repeat that, a little slower this time?"

"No, but I will paraphrase. He helped me and Sirius set up the club and then started working there for a little bit, he helped me one time and we became friends. There. Good enough?"

"Much better. Thank you."

"Well, we'll see you guys later."

"Kay, bye."

The girls kept on down the corridor while the boys went down the steps and out to the greenhouses. For some reason the students couldn't figure out, N.E.W.T. Transfiguration and regular Herbology classes were divided by house. Those were the only times when the four of them were not together. It was also the only time when Hermione, Ginny, Ron and Harry all had a class together without Blaise and Draco. Secretly, Ron and Harry were both glad of the time they would get with their friends without Draco and Blaise. They both felt that they were growing apart, especially from Hermione, they still had time with Ginny in Gryffindor tower, but they didn't even get to see Hermione then.

"Hey boys!"

"Hey Mione! Hey Ginny!"

"Hi," Ron said, "are you trying out for the Quidditch team, Mione?"

"You bet, we need another Chaser."

"You mean, you're not going to try to take my place?"

"Harry! Of course not, I would never do that. Just look at it this way, if you ever have to miss a game for some unforeseen reason, we'll still kick the opposing team's ass."

Harry laughed. "Too right we will, our team is going to be an unstoppable force this year."

"Hell yeah," Ginny said and punching her fist in the air, "Go Gryffindor," she mock cheered.

Laughing, the quartet filed into the room and took their seats. The class proceeded without incident and after they four went down to the Great Hall and piled their plates high with food, talking animatedly.

"Oh Hermione, please tell me you're not starting your spew stuff again," Ron groaned for Hermione had started eating at top speed much as she had when she had first started spew.

"Of course not, that's ridiculous. You know that I gave that up long ago, and that I have house elves at home. This is something personal that I need to find."

"Oh."

Less than five minutes later, Hermione had finished eating and was getting up from the table and heading towards the door. Five minutes later she was seated at a table in the library with a couple book at her table.

"_Gemstones and Their Magical Properties? The Mysterious Black Onyx?_ Mione, what on earth are these for?"

"Huh?"

"Mione, I'm talking to you, would you look at me please?"

"Oh yeah, sorry Harry, what's up?"

"Nothing, I was just worried when you said that it was something personal. Is everything alright between you and Draco? You and Blaise? Is there anything _wrong_?"

Hermione almost laughed, "No, nothing's wrong, I'm just looking stuff up for the jewelry for my new club."

"What new club?"

"It's a graduation present that I'm getting early, the grand opening of it is going to be the Halloween Ball because it's already almost done."

"That's awesome! But what does all this have to do with it?"

"You know Sirius's club, Silver?"

"Of course, I think you're the only person who's been there more than me."

"Well, I'm going to be starting a club similar to it called Onyx."

"Brilliant! But, once again, I ask, what does this have to do with it?"

"Well the whole admission thing at Silver won't really work for Onyx because Onyx is a stone. So I'm trying to figure out ways that I could use it for ID. I'm thinking crystal pendants for those of age and I can't decide what to do for those who aren't of age. I was looking at the pictures in these books for ideas."

"Why don't you use crystal? I mean, it's kinda like the opposite of onyx, its clear and doesn't have any color, except for the color from the light. But …oh, you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do. That's genius! Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you were focusing on using onyx."

"Well, yeah, but that was a rhetorical question," she said smirking.

"Oh. Well…whatever. I'm gonna go to class, lunch is almost over. Coming?"

"Yeah, just let me put this books away."

They got up and Hermione took the books in her arms and carried them over to a shelf and put them back in their original spots. They then walked out of the library and through the castle to the castle doors and went out into the grounds.

**A/N:** Well, I hope you liked it, and even if you didn't REVIEW, until next time…

Kat


	17. Halloween

**A/N:** Okay, the title of chapter fifteen, Filme und Fächer is german and I forgot to tell you all that that means, roughly, movies and classes. And I haven't been doing this but just so I'm safe…

Disclaimer: I own nothing, sadly, I wouldn't mind owning Tom Felton though. The characters you recognize from Harry Potter all belong to J.K. Rowling and the names that you don't and the whole hawksong thing is Amelia Atwater-Rhodes.

**WannaBArtist:** you are not retarded, you just didn't realize. And I think that in general, the mummy is my favorite but the mummy returns has got the stuff where Evy is Nefertiri and I like that sequence a lot.

**Robin777:** yeah, I'll be getting to that relatively soon, just wait a little big longer.

**XoKaSsIeox: **hope its soon enough for you.

**Amrawo:** Thanks and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

**Future movie maker:** Hope you love this chapter as much as the last, and thanks for the review!

**Tiarwen:** Thanks so much, enjoy the chapter.

**Steelo:** I'm glad you like it so much, and thanks for reviewing. I hope you continue to be "a happy fan".

**Sirusblackshottie:** Thanks for your review, hope you like the new chapter.

**Silverwolf130492:** Hermione does seem to know the coolest people, doesn't she? And yes, Ginny is in the same grade as the rest, Hermione helped her do it. I haven't decided if Andreios is going to stick around or not, maybe. Enjoy the chapter.

**Previously**

They got up and Hermione took the books in her arms and carried them over to a shelf and put them back in their original spots. They then walked out of the library and through the castle to the castle doors and went out into the grounds.

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Halloween** I'm an evil author, I'm not filling you in on the preparations! Mwahahaha!

Hermione and Ginny slumped on the couch closest to the door, Blaise and Draco on the couch opposite them, Sirius on the chair in between the couches and Harry and Ron on the floor spread eagle.

"Well, it all better be worth it, that's all I've got to say."

"Here, here," Ginny exclaimed.

The group had just finished putting the final touches on the club for the dance tomorrow night and had just fallen into the living quarters up above the club.

"I'm exhausted! How did we manage to do all of that?"

"Well, Mione, we're simple amazing. That's how," Sirius answered, grinning at her.

Hermione chuckled weakly, "That's gotta be it, I can't explain it any other way."

"Oy! Don't want to ruin the little pow wow, but do you think we could go back to the castle now, or are we sleeping here or the shack? What are we doing?"

The rest of them laughed and Ron looked indignant, "What! It was a logical question! We're all tired, I was just wondering where we were sleeping?"

"Well, we thought we'd stay in the shack, but you're free to go back to the castle," Ginny said. "I don't know if there'll be much sleeping or quiet in the shack…"

"Yeah, you could stay here, if you don't mind, Sirius," Hermione looked over at him. He nodded groggily. "You two just want to stay here?"

"I'm not movin'," Harry said, "at least, not more than a couple feet, maybe to the couch once you leave. But other than that, nope."

The girls laughed and looked over at Draco and Blaise. They were both nodding off, the girls stifled a giggle. A though occurred to each of them, at the same time, and they looked at each other. Identical mischievous smiles (that could rival Fred and George's) broke out across their faces. They both slowly, silently got up from the couch, crept over to the two dosing guys and started tickling them fiercly.

"BLOODY HELL!" Blaise yelled while sitting strait up looking around.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Draco bolted upright and caught Hermione's arms. His eyes narrowed, but not angrily, as if to say 'you are so going to pay for that'.

"Come on, let's go." Hermione took Draco's hand and pulled him out of his chair and Ginny did likewise with Blaise.

The four walked out of the room and out of the club. They all changed as they passed through the club entrance. As soon as they were out, the two girls started running at top speed, Hermione easily outstripping Ginny as her strides were longer. Tail whipping behind, Hermione turned her head and saw Draco flying, almost catching up, and she could have sworn she saw a glint in his eye, but it was much harder to read him as a dragon. She turned back to the road and barely avoided a rut in the road. She picked up a little more speed and turned her head again and saw Draco swooping in low, head down, and next thing she knew his head was under her and she was sliding down his back.

Instinct told her to dig her claws in and she obeyed, part of her being a panther meant that she listened to her instincts…most of the time anyway. Besides, she didn't want to fall of the other end. As she did so, she heard Draco give out a loud growl of pain and, realizing what she had done, retracted her claws. However, her claws were all that had been keeping her on the smooth body and she slid off, toppling to the ground. Thank god for feline balance, otherwise she might have broken her neck. Draco touched down a few feet away and collapsed on the ground, she took of towards him.

He had turned back into his normal form and was laying on his front with several long deep cuts in his back. As she reached him, Hermione raised up on her two back legs and turned back into herself.

"Draco?"

No answer.

"Draco, please answer me."

"Ow," he said faintly.

She could tell that the cuts were bleeding profusely, even in the dark, she knew her claws were sharp. They weren't far from the shack and she knew she had to clean the cuts, but how to get him there? "Draco, can you hear me?"

"Of course I can hear you. I'm hurt, not deaf."

"Can you stand?"

"Trying, at this very second," it was true and he didn't seem to be making a whole lot of progress.

Transforming back into the panther Mione put her head under his arm and he put his arm around her body to get some balance. Ginny and Blaise came up to them. When Hermione saw Blaise she stopped and immediately turned back into herself.

"Blaise, turn back into a phoenix."

"Why?"

"Because phoenix tears have healing power."

"They do?"

"Yes! Now just do it! He's losing a lot of blood."

Blaise did as he was told and within a matter of seconds Draco was better. He was still weak from the blood loss and needed help getting to the shack. They all got settled in right away as they were all about to collapse from exhaustion.

"Can I just say one thing?"

"What?"

"Ow."

It was the next morning and Draco was lying on the new couch in the downstairs room with Hermione cuddled up beside him. They had replaced the couch the second time coming, and had replaced the rest of the furniture as well.

"Well, it's your own fault."

"How do you get that?" he asked looking down and the warm body pressed against his side. She looked beautiful, though she would probably laugh at him if he said that, it was so clichéd.

"Well," damn, he was even sexy first thing in the morning, if not more so than usual with his messed up hair, "if you hadn't done that…that…thing, then I never would have dug my claws in your back trying to stay on."

"Okay, I guess your right."

"That's it?" she asked incredulously.

"What do you mean?"

"That's it? No, 'its still not my fault, you didn't have to dig your claws into my back'? No witty rebuttal?"

"No."

"Oh."

"I just don't feel like getting into a disagreement so early in the morning while you're looking so gorgeous."

She blushed, "Thanks," and leaned up and kissed him. Luckily, she had woken up before him and said a quick spell to get rid of morning breath, and he must have done the same. It was the kind of kiss long married couples gave each other in the morning. She got up and stretched with the grace associated to her second form and Draco marveled at that grace. After stretching, Hermione went into the bathroom and took a shower. Meanwhile, Draco went into the kitchen and looked around. It didn't have much in it, just the basics, like water, because they agreed that it would be too easy to never leave if they stocked it up with food.

Almost the same thing happened upstairs as well. Blaise came down the stairs as Ginny went to take a shower as well.

"Morning," Blaise said, shuffling into the kitchen running a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, how'd you sleep?"

"Fine. You?"

"Same."

The girls came out of the showers at the same time and headed towards the kitchen to find the guys.

"Done, did you guys want to take a shower?"

"We're gonna take ours back at school, the showers are so much better there."

"Maybe, but I just felt yicky."

"Okay, well, are you ready to get going?"

"Yup, lets go."

The four headed to the tunnel and changed before the came above ground, Hermione touching her paw to the knot at the base of the tree. They all came out of the tunnel and made their way up to the castle.

"I can't wait until tonight!" seemed to be the phrase of the morning. Walking into the hall, and splitting to go to their different tables, Hermione and Ginny were besieged by giggling girls all talking about the dance later that night.

"Omigod! Hermione, Ginny, I can't wait," Parvati said as soon as she saw them. "What are you guys going as?"

"Oh, sorry Parvati," Hermione said, "we're not telling anybody because we want it to be a surprise, but we can assure you that you'll love it. What are you going to be?"

"I'm going as Olympias from Alexander. I saw it over the summer and feel in love with the red dress."

"I know that one! I love that dress too," Ginny exclaimed. "I would have worn that if I didn't already have a plan. Good choice!"

"Yeah, I love it. I can't wait, who are you guys going with? Oh wait, don't tell me, let me guess. Blaise and Draco, right?"

The two girls grinned and nodded, "How bout you?"

"I'm going with Ron, its going to be just like the Yule Ball in our fourth year, only switched."

"Yeah, well I hope it goes better than it did then."

"Me too. Well, see you."

"Bye."

"Later."

Ginny and Hermione made their way to the table and ate breakfast joining in the excited talk around them. The rest of the day was spent with the girls in their little group, Padma Patil, Lisa Turpin and Mandy Brocklehurst. When it was time, the girls went to the Head's dorms, promptly kicked Draco and Blaise out, and started getting ready for the dance.

"Well, shall we go get ready, mate?"

"Sure, who did you decide to go as?"

Draco grinned, "Well, I found out who they're going as and picked something accordingly."

"Oh no, so did I! Please tell me we're not going as the same person."

"I doubt it. Are you going to be wearing a shirt?"

"Yeah."

"Well then, we're not the same. My costume doesn't consist of a whole lot."

"Really? Who is it? Oh, wait, never mind, I know. Quite fitting really, because we've picked the respective guys for their characters, you realize."

"Yeah. Well, come on."

The girls were in various states of readiness. Lisa was almost completely ready. She had her dress on, all her jewelry on and all her makeup done. She just had to spell her hair a dark red and put her shoes on and she was ready. Over the previous summer, her muggle neighbor and childhood friend had gotten her hooked on an American TV show called Alias. Her neighbor had all the seasons on DVD and Lisa was going as Sydney in one of her multiple disguises. She was wearing a knee length red flapper dress with thin straps. The dress was made of layers of one-inch fringe down to the thigh which was then replaced by a single layer of six-inch fringe down to the knee. She had a watch with a red band and a red choker on as well as red stilettos. The finishing touch was the hair which she spelled to be a deep red.

"Wow, Lisa you look fab!"

"Thanks, Mand, you look pretty great yourself."

Mandy was wearing a costume from Van Helsing. She was Anna. She was wearing the ivory shirt with red embroidery underneath the black corset. The corset was made of leather and had rows of buckles on it. She was wearing tight black leggings, not that you saw much of those. The boots she wore went all the way up to her mid-thigh that were held up by straps attached to her corset. Over her tops was a cropped plum velour jacket with gold embroidery around the edges. She was just starting to put her makeup on and had her wand out.

"Sometimes," she said, "I think muggle women have it right. Sometimes this is just so bloody difficult, trying to not get your wand in your eye, having to touch in _just_ the right place. Can somebody do this for me?"

"I'll do it," Lisa volunteered, "the rest of them are still getting into their costumes."

Padma was wearing the black leather corset and double layered black and grey skirt from the same film. It had taken a lot of help to get the corset on and the skirt was fitted from her butt to her knees. She had done her makeup and hair before hand and was putting the finished touches on her outfit. She adjusted the black choker, if you could call it that. It was made up of many strands of beads and tied up around her neck with the ends reaching all the way down to her shins. On her arms were fingerless leather gloves much like muggle girls wear to their proms. The final touch was the double band of silver around her forehead.

"Oh, Padma you look great!" Ginny exclaimed looking over as Padma stood and said, "Ta-da!"

"Oh my god! I think you're just about the only person who could pull that off!"

"You look even better than she did in the movie!"

"Harry's going to have a heart attack!"

"Thanks you guys!"

"Now, Ginny, Mione, its almost time to go and we're all ready. Are you guys done yet?"

None of the girls had yet to see Hermione and Ginny's costumes because they had erected a screen and had done all of their getting ready behind it, occasionally popping their heads out to see what was going on.

"Yup!"

"All ready, here we come."

"Oh my god," all three of the other girls said simultaneously.

"We'll see you girls at the dance, we'll be there before everyone. Which reminds me, who are you guys going with?"

"Well, you already know that I'm going with Harry," Padma said.

"Yeah, what about you Lisa?"

"I'm going with Justin Finch-Fletchly."

"Awww, good, I told him you'd say yes, he's had a crush on you forever."

"You're the one who told him to, Mione?"

"Yup!"

"Thank you, I'd hug you but I don't want to mess with your outfit."

Hermione chuckled as Ginny asked, "What about you Mandy?"

"I'm going with Owen."

"Awesome, you guys'll have fun."

"And we all know who you're going with, and they should be here any minute, so we'll get going now, we'll see you down there."

"Bye."

The three girls went out the door to see Draco and Blaise standing against the wall waiting. When they saw the girls they stood and went in, greeting the girls as they left.

"Mione?" Draco asked, his mouth dropping to the floor.

"Ginny?" Blaise said, with the same effect.

"Yes?" the two girls asked, sweetly.

"You look bloody brilliant!" Draco said.

"As do you, and I'm guessing you somehow found out who I was going to be."

"Yup, we heard you two talking one night when you thought we were asleep."

"The black hair looks pretty good, more in character. Well, shall we all get going?"

"You bet!" Ginny said. "I mean, we do have to be there before everyone else."

Less then an hour later the club was packed with people, all of whom were mesmerized by the sight in front of them.

**A/N:** Ooooh, I'm so evil on so many levels! Now, if you would like to guess as to who they are, feel free, I'll give you a cyber-cookie if you get it right. There were clues throughout this chapter and in one maybe two of the others. Hope to update soon!


	18. Costume Competition

**A/N:** Well, I'm glad that you all seemed to enjoy the previous chapter, and I got a ton of reviews, thank you so much. I decided to change part of Draco's, his hair, people seemed to be in an uproar so, instead of having shaved his head, he just charmed it black. And practically no one guessed on the costumes. And costume change…I changed Mandy's costume, I changed it on the last chapter and I'll do what it is now when describing the outfits later in the chapter. Just to let you know, she's now Anna from Van Helsing. I got sick of having practically all Star Wars costumes. So I changed it, bwahh

**Robin777: **Thanks, and doesn't surprise me that you couldn't guess, no one else did either. Enjoy the chapter.

**Future movie maker: **You made me realize the error of my ways, and are the reason I changed it to having spelled his hair black. Hope you like the new chapter.

**Tiarwen:** So far, three for three who have no idea who they are, and don't worry about not being great with pop culture because I mentioned the movie they were from in an earlier chapter, but never mind. Not a big deal.

**WannaBArtist:** Well, if you follow that mold, then you've halfway guessed as to what Hermione, Ginny, Draco and Blaise are going as, kinda. And thanks for the review, and hope you like this chapter.

**Michelle Felton:** Thank you so much for your review, I love getting new reviewers, thanks, enjoy the chapter.

IamSiriusgrl: I know, I'm evil, and you ruined my fun by not guessing, I wanted to see what people thought they would go as. Have fun with the chapter! 

**Tinka Shimmer Belle: ** Thanks for your reviews! And don't tell, but you got the costumes right, the only person to do so. You got it dead on, who was wearing what. Great job, enjoy the chapter, oh and here's a cyber cookie for you, it should be tasty, just imagine your fav. Cookie.

**Princess Bryceida of England:** Thanks, and I hope you like this chapter just as much.

**Steelo:** Yeah, maybe I am devious and not evil, and hope these are detailed enough for you. Hope you like the chap.

**Danni**: I love those books, don't you? And Amelia has some awesome names, and I needed some cool names, so I figured why not? Enjoy Snakecharm and this chapter!

**Silverwolf130492: **I was wondering if anyone was going to catch the Parvati thing, I just couldn't get rid of that dress I love it so much. And the Harry having a heart attack thing…well, in the movie, Padme was bursting out of the top of that dress and if Padma looks even better…well…ahem, perhaps you can imagine. Thanks for the review and enjoy the chapter.

**Amrawo:** Glad you love it so much, hope you like this chapter as much, enjoy!

**Sirusblackshottie:** Ummmm, not quite, but they are movie couples. Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy the chappie!

**Previously**

Less then an hour later the club was packed with people, all of whom were mesmerized by the sight in front of them.

**Chapter Eighteen**

**Costume Competition**

A man's voice echoed through the room. It sounded like a command, but no one could tell because it was in a foreign language. But it must have made sense to the two women on the dance floor because they started moving. They had been standing in a fighting stance. At the command the two went into a complicated series of movements. The two were fighting – if that's what you would call it; it was more like a carefully planned dance with weapons – with golden Sai. (**I have no idea what the plural would be)**

Each one was barefooted with a braided rope tied just under each knee. The one on the left was clad in a darker skirt. It was Egyptian in style and came down to almost reach the crease of her knee in the back and came up her sides to be quite short at the apex of her thighs. There was a belt of a similar color made of what looked almost like scales around her that came to her front and over the front of the belt and skirt to hang midway down her thighs. Her top consisted of a double-layered gold mesh material cropped right under her breasts. The sides of this were attached to strings, which went around her side to tie at the middle of her back. The front of the top, the gold mesh, went over her shoulders and had 5 circular charms attached to it every few inches with the largest one hanging down in the center. The only jewelry she wore were the gauntlets on her wrists and the armbands on her upper arms. The thing that intrigued most was that they could not see her face as it was hidden by a mask.

The other woman was similarly dressed but in ivory. She too wore no sandals and had the braids around her legs. Her skirt was made of a shimmery ivory with a golden belt similar to the others. Her top was somewhat different however. It was much like a muggle bikini top with two triangles of material, which were edged with ornate trim. The top came down to right under her breasts, just as the other's had, and had a thick gold band, which was also decorated with trim. Like her skirt it was made of ivory and gold. She too wore gauntlets and armbands and like her opponent, a mask.

The masks were made of a gold colored material with several gold braids attached to the top of the mask and hanging down as part of their hair, which had been straightened and charmed black. When the one in the dark skirt knocked the other to the floor, the woman on the floor lifted her mask and there was a gasp as they recognized her as Ginny Weasley. She said something in the same language as earlier, and amazingly subtitles, like from the movie The Mummy Returns, appeared above their heads as Hermione raised her mask as well.

"Put your mask on. Let's not scar that pretty face."

They finished the fight sequence.

"You're learning quickly, Nefertiri. I'll have to watch my back."

"Yes, and I'll watch mine."

The two stood to applause and Hermione greeted the crowd.

"Welcome to the grand opening of Onyx and this years Halloween Ball. As all of you know, this year's theme is muggle movies and television. We've decorated the club in some of the films' design. We'll be having a costume contest later in the evening in which everyone who wants may take part. As for the rest of the evening, have fun."

The crowd clapped at that and the Weird Sisters, who no one but Hermione and Sirius knew was going to be there, came out onto the stage that was just magicked there by Sirius. They picked up their instruments and struck up a fast tune. By the time they reached the second verse almost everyone was dancing.

"Whew! I'm really hot! I need a drink!" Hermione led the way back to the table with Draco, Ginny and Blaise following closely behind. Many girls would have tried to accost Draco and dance with him had it not been for the fact that he was gripping Hermione's hand so tightly it looked like it would start turning blue soon. They settled for throwing Mione jealous glares. A similar thing was happening to Ginny, but the guys were a little more successful with Ginny than the girls had with Draco. Occasionally, a guy would manage to get close to Ginny, close enough to get their hands on her waist, but then Blaise, who was attached to her hand, would catch up a couple seconds later and start glaring at the guy and he would back off. By the time they reached the bar, people, male and female alike, had settled for throwing jealous looks.

They joined Lisa and Owen at the bar. A few minutes later the group at the bar had grown to include Padma and Harry, Parvati and Ron, and Lavender and Ernie. Then Mandy and Justin came over and sat by their respective dates. Mandy and Justin had both wanted to dance and Lisa and Owen hadn't wanted to, so they split up for a little while.

Harry and Padma were the vision of Star Wars. Padma in her black leather corset and grey skirt with the black cutout overlay, hair tied back in the complicated braid from the movie, leather gloves and choker and crown looked better than Padme. Harry was wearing the outfit Anakin wore throughout most of the film. Brown leggings tucked into brown boots with a loose brown shirt tucked into the leggings covered by the black leather vest. He even had a lightsaber on his belt. They were the epitome of Padme and Anakin.

Then there was Parvati and Ron. A couple that couldn't be more different. Somehow, he and Ernie (which in itself was an odd pair) had managed to find the perfect clothes to be the twins from The Matrix saga. Ron had charmed his hair to be a dark blonde and Ernie the same, they didn't think they would look that great with long platinum dreds. Dressed entirely in white, or off-white, he was wearing the shirt, tie, vest, pants and coat. He had to be boiling. Then, next to him was Parvati in a one-shouldered floor length red dress with gold trim. She had a gold armband on her right upper arm and a gold crown with red gems on her head. She had brushed out her hair and, with a slight wave in it, put about half of it up with her crown. The only other jewelry she wore was a pair of large gold and ruby earrings dangling from her ears. Her eyes were rimmed in charcoal with the smallest touch of eye shadow to gently offset the liner. Somehow, even with difference in their costumes, they managed to look great together.

Lavender and Ernie looked okay. Lavender was wearing something that no one could recognize from any of the movies they had seen and when questioned about it she told everyone it was from a show called Charmed that she had seen over the summer. She was wearing a black and blue satin corset tank with a Chinese design embroidered onto it. With it she was wearing a pair of tight black pants. Ernie was wearing all white just like Ron. The pair didn't look spectacular, but it wasn't horrible either.

The strange couples were Lisa-and-Justin and Mandy-and-Owen. Once they had gotten there and started talking, it turned out that Lisa had more in common with Owen and the same with Justin and Mandy. None of the four seemed to have realized that they had essentially switched dates, but no one seemed to mind either. They also seemed to look better this way.

Lisa was wearing the red flapper dress from Alias, which her hair had been spelled to resemble. The above-knee length of the dress and red stiletto high heels accented her legs. Owen went quite well with her in a tuxedo. When Ginny asked, "Who are you supposed to be?" He answered, not having to fake an accent, obviously, "The name's Bond, James Bond. I'll have a…a…what can you get that's non-alcoholic that can be 'shaken, not stirred'?" They just laughed. But looking at the two of them, no one would ever know that they hadn't come together.

The same was true of Mandy and Justin. Mandy was Anna Valerious and was wearing her hair down and curled. The cream shirt had red embroidery on it, but was mostly covered by the black leather corset she wore that came to just under her breasts. There were several rows of buckles on the front and back. Over this she wore a dark purple cropped jacket with gold embroidery. She wore tight black leggings which were mostly covered by her black thigh-high boots which were held up by straps attaching them to her corset. She looked marvelous with just a touch of makeup. Justin was dressed as Dracula from the same movie. He had charmed his hair black and a little longer so that it looked like Dracula's did in the movie. He was dressed in fitted black pants and boots with the black shirt, vest and overcoat, which was currently unbuttoned. They looked quite a pair. And they seemed to be having quite a time.

Looking around the room, Hermione saw costumes from a wider variety of movies than they had here. Here there was The Mummy, Star Wars, Van Helsing, James Bond, The Matrix Reloaded and an episode of Alias and Charmed. Around them were costumes from The Lord of the Rings (Aragorn, Arwen, Eowyn and Legolas most commonly), King Arthur (mostly the male characters but there were two or three Guineveres) Spider-man (you'd be surprised), Ella Enchanted (no worries no one was the snake, mostly Ella and Prince Char) and Pirates of the Caribbean (mostly Jack Sparrows) to name a few. The costumes ranged from simple everyday wear to outrageous, barely there costumes.

They group started dancing again, Mandy and Lisa seemed to have switched dates permanently, and did so until the costume competition.

"May I have your attention, please?"

No one got any quieter, they just kept talking.

"Hello?"

No change in volume.

"Shut up!"

That got them.

"All right, it is now time for the costume competition. Anyone who wants to be in it is welcome to come up here, the remaining prefects along with myself and the Head Boy will tally up the votes." Hermione magicked a podium and table into existence. "Now, everyone who wants to be in the contest please come and stand in a line. The rest of you can do whatever and we'll announce each person, their character, show a shot from the film, and than you can vote, you can only vote for 3 people in the first round. We'll go through everyone then you can vote. Got it?" The crowd roared its understanding. "Okay, lets get started."

People lined up. There were only about thirteen people who had the guts to get up there, Ginny, Harry, Padma, Mandy, Justin, Lisa and Owen all went up, Ginny dragging Hermione with her.

"Alright," Draco said. "First up is our Head Girl Hermione Granger along with Ginny Weasley who are Anck-su-namun and Nefertiri from the movie The Mummy Returns. Strike a pose, ladies."

They went into the fighting stance while a still of the same thing came up beside them for the crowd to compare them to.

"Thank you, ladies, next up is Anastasia as Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings. Pose please."

Anastasia, a fifth year, was wearing the white gown with long sleeves from the Return of the King with the brown bustier over it. Her long blonde hair had been lengthened and curled. She looked good, but not as good as Hermione and Ginny.

"Alright, thank you Anastasia. Next up is Owen, who is…"

"The names Bond, James Bond," Owen finished.

"Yes, and I suppose I don't have to tell _you_ to strike a pose." Which was true because he did so before Draco had finished the sentence. "Right, next we have the Terry who is Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Caribbean."

This cycle went on.

"And here we have Harry Potter and Padma Patil as Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala from the Star Wars saga. And may I say Padma that you are looking marvelous this evening?"

"No, you can't," Harry said, which had the whole place in an uproar, Harry included who had only said it to get a laugh.

"Well then, in that case someone get rid of Harry, only joking Mione, next! And here we have Colin and Denis Creevy as Gandalf the White and Saruman the White. Gentlemen if you please." The two posed and then were replaced by Mandy and Justin. "And here we have Mandy as Anna Valerious and Justin as Count Dracula from the film Van Helsing. Interestingly no one has decided to dress as the title character of this film. Nice pose guys, been working on it long?" Justin and Mandy had pretended to be dancing, like in the film, and Justin had just dipped her, and they stayed there posing. "Next up is…Sirius as Aragorn son of Arathorn and heir to the throne of Gondor from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. You got that rugged look down don't you, Sirius?"

"Don't make me hurt you, Draco," Sirius said laughingly while dramatically drawing his sword. Sirius was dressed in the infinitly dark green ranger costume of Aragorn's (it really is green, I watched the extended thing about the costumes) and was looking so good in it that several of the older girls had started hitting on him before they realized that he was old enough to be their fathers.

"And, last but not least, we have Lisa as Sydney Bristow from the hit Yankee series Alias, and is she dressed to kill tonight or what?" Lisa had started doing a series of poses with her hands brought together as a fake gun. "And now, if you would all be so kind as to vote."

A few minutes later the judges were hurriedly counting the votes.

"Okay, here we are," Draco announced. "In third place, we have Harry and Padma as Anakin and Padme." Cheers filled the room. "Anyone else think it's a little weird that their names are only one letter different?"

"Draco?"

"Yes, Hermione?"

"Shut up. In second place…Mandy and Justin as Anna Valerious and Count Dracula from Van Helsing." Applause erupted throughout the room.

"And, in first place," Draco began, "is…drum roll please…" the room was filled with the sound, "Hermione and Ginny as Anck-su-namun and Nefertiri from The Mummy Returns! Congratulations ladies! I'm sure you're little show earlier had nothing to do with your winning, just the amount of stomach bared."

"Well in that case," Hermione said quietly in his ear, "would you like me to put a longer shirt on?"

"Hell no! When did you hear me say that?" Draco answered just as softly, then raising his voice he announced, "You three duos get a prize, free admission and drinks on the night of your choice here at Onyx. And for the rest of the school, there is a reduced admission for students once school is out."

A cheer went around the room and the music started back up. It took about thirty seconds before the dance floor was once again crowded.

"May I have this dance, Mione," Blaise asked.

"But of course," she answered, curtseying to his bow.

"Draco, what do you say? We show 'em how its done?"

"You bet! Let's go."

The rest of the night found the students dancing happily with one another, They didn't dance exclusively with their dates, but had a tendancy to share. Draco however, reserved all slow dances for Hermione.

**A/N:** I know there wasn't a lot to the story, but descriptions take up a lot of room, and then my brain stopped functioning, so…there you are. It was hard to think of movies that had good costumes, so a lot of them came from the same movies. Tell me which were your favorite or what you would have like to see. REVIEW


	19. The Morning After

**A/N:** All right, since that last chapter didn't have a whole lot of dialogue in it, I'm hoping this one has more in it. Hope you all enjoy!

**Steelo:** To answer your question about how many times I had to watch the scene in The Mummy Returns, I only had to watch it once to get the dialogue, but to get the outfits; I had to keep pausing at different points. Thanks for the review, enjoy this chapter.

**Robin777:** Those are just the ones I've seen recently but that also have good costume options. And with regards to Sirius, I wanted someone to be Aragorn, and he was the only one I could think of to be him and be able to pull it off.

**Tinka Shimmer Belle:** How did I know that you love cookies? I didn't, but I love them too, so, logical choice. I thought about doing something from Moulin Rogue, but by the time I thought of it, the chapter was already written, but if I had thought of it earlier, I would have. Hope you like this chapter.

**Danni: **Thank you for your review. Hope you enjoy the chap.

**Red and Gold: **Thank you! Glad you like the story, enjoy the chappie.

**Future movie maker:** Thankys, hope you like the chapter!

**WannaBArtist:** You don't hate me, I'm un-hateable. At least, I hope I am. Oh well. Enjoy the chapter.

**IamSiriusgrl**: I'm glad you liked the costumes, hope you like the chapter.

**Amrawo:** Thank you very very very very very much. Actually, I think that you had more 'really's in there but oh well, glad you liked the costumes. Enjoy.

**Sirusblackshottie:** Its okay, at least you guessed, which is more than most can say.

**Smiles28:** Glad you like it so much, enjoy the chapter.

**Previously**

The rest of the night found the students dancing happily with one another, they didn't dance exclusively with their dates, but had a tendency to share. Draco however, reserved all slow dances for Hermione.

**Chapter Nineteen**

**The Morning After**

Hermione groaned and rolled over. "Somebody close the blinds, and get a wand." She didn't hear any movement. She sat up slowly so as not to maker her head hurt anymore than it already did and looked around. Her mouth dropped open. She was still in half her costume from the night before. She moved her shoulders and the charms attached to the top moved and she could see the imprints on her skin. She moved her legs and felt the comfort of denim. She realized she was in the upstairs bedroom of the shrieking shack. She looked down and saw Draco next to her, turned on his side towards her, with his arm resting lightly on her legs where it had dropped when she sat up. "Draco," she whispered.

"Mmm?"

"Wake up."

"Don't wanna," he said softly rolling onto his back.

With a sly smile Hermione said, "You need to take a shower after what we did last night."

Draco's eyes popped open, "What? What did we do last night?" He sat up and looked at her and noticed that she was fully clothed. "Nice," he said flopping back down onto the bed. "Ow."

"Yeah, where's your wand?"

"Here," he said handing it to her from beside the bed.

She took it and said a small spell touching the wand to his head, then to hers. Immediately both cleared. "Let's go wake everyone up, shall we?"

Noticing the mischievous smile on her face, Draco grinned and said, "Absolutely."

The two got up, said a spell to clear everyone's heads then set about waking them up in the worst way possible.

"OH MY GOD, THE SHACK IS COLLAPSING! EVERYONE GET OUT!"

"HURRY, BEFORE WE'RE ALL CRUSHED!"

Everyone who had come to the after party last night sat upright and scurried to their feet. Then they noticed Draco and Hermione laughing.

"Funny."

"Thanks very much for that."

"Was that really called for?"

"Oh, man I was so not ready to wake up."

"Can you close the drapes?"

Last night, at midnight, when the dance ended, all seventh years were invited back to the shrieking shack. No one invited returned to the castle that night.

Sirius, who had provided music, and limited alcohol, only for those of age 17, had changed out of his Aragorn costume into his favorite dark blue jeans and charcoal button down. He had even danced with a couple of the older girls, especially Ginny and Hermione. Girls had come up to him all night requesting a dance, and when they couldn't get that, they settled for a song.

The rest of the group had also changed into jeans, and in most cases, and other shirts. Hermione and Ginny had each traded their skirts for jeans, and headdress of their respective movie characters. They each wore tight, dark, low-slung jeans that hugged their legs and showed off the tattoos on their lower backs.

Draco and Blaise had each abandoned almost every aspect of their costumes. The only part of his costume that Draco had not abandoned was his black hair and the gold medallion he wore around his neck. He wore a pair of dark, well-worn jeans and a black wife-beater that showed of his muscled arms and chest, as well as the tattoo around his upper arm. Blaise had exchanged his tan, fitted trousers for a pair of faded jeans but kept the loose, white, linen shirt and leather gauntlet on his right wrist.

Harry had changed completely out of his costume and into a pair of jeans and an emerald button down shirt that matched his eyes. Padma too had changed. She still wore the black leather corset, but she had abandoned the shirt in favor of a pair of tight black jeans. There was a thin line of flesh visible between the end of the top and the top of her jeans. Her hair had been let out of the braid and she had taken off the beaded choker but had kept the bands around her head and the fingerless gloves.

Ron had changed out of his long coat, tie and vest but kept the same white shirt on with a pair of black jeans. Parvati had changed completely out of her dress and was wearing a pair of light blue jeans as well along with a red, one-shoulder tank that looked like her dress. She had taken her tiara off but still wore her earrings and armband.

Ernie had done the same as Ron and discarded all of his costume but his shirt and put on a pair of jeans. Lavender hadn't changed at all and was still wearing her pants and top.

Lisa had done the same thing as Parvati in that she was wearing a tank that looked like her dress. She coupled it with a pair of worn jeans and she put her hair up in a ponytail. Owen had changed entirely and was wearing a pair of black jeans and a t-shirt.

Justin had changed out of his costume in favor of jeans and a black button down. The only part of his costume that he still had was the long black hair. Mandy had forsaken her boots and leggings for jeans like most of the group, but had kept her shirt and corset.

All night was spent dancing, just different styles. Where the dancing at the club had been clean and PG rated – for the teachers' benefit – the dancing at the shack was what was typically seen at Silver. Bodies were closer together. There was less talking. There was more heat. You always hear the phrase "hot and heavy" and this was no exception. It was the first time the class had ever been together in a place or situation like this one.

Many couples were joined at the hip, literally, for most of the night. Some danced all night, like Draco, Hermione, Blaise, Ginny, Mandy and Justin. Others like Lisa and Owen had danced and talked equally, preferring some conversation to none at all. Harry and Padma had mostly talked; getting to know each other better, while Ron and Parvati had gone separate ways. They had realized earlier that while they got along at school, they didn't really work as a couple. Lavender and Ernie danced with each other some and some with other people.

Now though, all were waking up in the clothes they had worn last night, for most that was jeans and some kind of shirt. For others who had gotten a little more familiar with each other just a pair of jeans, or nothing at all. For those people, the phrase 'where are my clothes?' became a new mantra.

"Alright guys, it's time to head up to the castle."

"Do we have to?"

"Yeah, you're Head Girl, can't you just say that 7th year is taking a Hogsmeade day?"

"Yeah, how bout it?"

"Well, you see, at least four people, one from each house, have to come back with us for that to work. We already talked to Professor Dumbledore, and he said that we could stay here if at least four people have to come with us. So…who's it gonna be?"

"I'll go Mione," Harry said.

"Yeah, so will I," this was Padma.

In the end, the group of six had included Hermione, Draco, Harry, Padma, a Hufflepuff girl named Summer, and a Slytherin boy who said his name was Luke. The six trudged up to the castle, wiping the last traces of sleep from their eyes and making little conversation.

Summer was the first to break the silence. "So…what are you guys going to do today?"

"Dunno."

"Probably just hang out."

"Hang."

"Go into the village."

"Yeah, shop a little."

After that all attempts at conversation ceased. They reached the castle a short while later and yawned as they went in the doors. Draco used the arm that wasn't around Hermione's waist to push open the doors to the Great Hall. Everyone looked around at them. Those who hadn't been invited to the ball by a 7th year had no idea where all of them had been, especially their 5th and 6th year friends who had been invited. But the sight of these six individuals, well, more appropriately Hermione, Draco, Harry and Padma, explained that the year had been of partying somewhere and that they were here only because Dumbledore wanted to see them.

Breakfast was just finishing and the six wandered up to the teacher's table. Dumbledore smiled at them as they approached.

"I trust everyone had a fun-filled night?"

"Oh, yeah, most of the students were still asleep when we had to leave, but these four said they would come with us."

"Wonderful, well, I just wanted to make sure you were all safe. Now, as I said, all 7th years may have the day in Hogsmeade, just make sure everyone is back by dinner."

"Yes, sir," Draco said.

"Thank you, Professor," Hermione added.

The six then turned and made their way back to the village. When they got there they saw their fellow students already making a start on the day, milling about the streets, going into shops, sitting outside in the Autumn sun and talking. Hermione took Draco aside.

"Hey, I'm going to meet up with Ron and Harry for a little while, for old times sake. And then Ginny and I were going to have a little girl's day out with Padma, Lisa and Mandy."

"Okay, Blaise and I were going to do the same, but the second part, where you're with the rest of your girlfriends? We were going to get together with Harry, Owen and Justin. Ron said something about doing something else and so he was gonna skip. But it should be fun."

"Sounds good. Well, do you want to meet after that? And get a little dinner before we go back to the castle?"

"Are you asking me out?" She gave him a broad grin.

He looked down, then back up to her, also grinning, "Why, yes, I believe I am. Is that a yes?"

"Umm," she bit her lip pretending to think about it. "I guess." She gave him another large smile; "I'll see you after lunch." Draco shook his head at her. Grinning, she leaned up and gave him a quick kiss, then started skipping towards Harry and Ron who were waiting several feet away.

"Hey guys! How's it goin?"

"Great," they replied simultaneously. She grinned at them and Harry asked, "How about you? You and Draco seem to be getting along."

Neither one noticed that Ron's smile grew strained.

"It's great. We're having our first official date today," she said excitedly. "I mean, it's not like it's a big deal or anything, but…well, you know."

Harry nodded and Ron murmured his agreement.

"So," Ron said, changing the subject subtly, "where do you guys want to go first?"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, Hermione excited and Harry sighing, "I'm guessing Mione wants to go to Flourish and Blotts."

Shaking his head Ron grinned. "Some things never change."

"Hey! I resemble that remark! And besides, we'd get scared if _everything always_ changed and _nothing _was the same. Now wouldn't we?"

"True."

"Now," she said coming between the two guys and hooking each of her arms through one of theirs, "are we ready?"

Grinning the boys both nodded and the trio set off down the street to Flourish and Blotts.

**A/N:** I'm planning on introducing a couple new characters soon, whether its in the next chapter or not, I don't know. But I need suggestions for cool names, both male and female. Put 'em in your reviews because you want to tell me. Or email them to me, but either way make sure you…REVIEW!


	20. A Cacophony of Protests

**A/N: **Sorry it took so long for me to update but school has been pretty hectic. Enjoy!

**Steelo: **Thanks for the review and for the ideas for names. I hope you enjoy the chappie.

**WannaBArtist:** Awwww shucks, I feel so special, you can't even try to hate me. Hehe, huggles back.

**Robin777: **Yeah, I'm glad they are too, I decided that we hadn't had enough of just the trio, so…

**Future movie maker:** Thankys for the names. Enjoy the chapter.

**IamSiriusgrl:** Thanks for reviewing, and about the waking "buwahahahaha" that's pretty much the worst way I could think of.

**Sirusblackshottie:** Get hyped up for the date! I am! Hehe!

**Silverwolf130492:** I'm glad that you like everything. Ron doesn't like Hermione, and Hermione doesn't like Ron either. I'm planning on the date being fluffy so no worries there. Thank you and enjoy the chapter!

**Lilsaint12291:** Thanks for the ideas for names, I think I ended up using at least one of them. Enjoy the chapter.

**Danni:** It makes me feel all warm and goey inside that you like my story so much, yay! Hehehe, enjoy the chapter.

**Celtic-Elements: **Glad you like the story so much. I know what its like to be obsessed, and I'm glad that you like the story enough to be obsessed.

**Tiarwen: **Thanks for the review and the names! Enjoy the chapter!

**Secretspells311:** Thankys very much, hope you like the new chappie.

**LittleMissus:** Yay! I'm glad you like it so much! Enjoy the chapter.

**Tinka Shimmer Belle:** I've got a riddle at the end of the chapter about the names, and their meanings. Hmmm, my favorite kind of cookie? Umm, I have a couple: chocolate chocolate chip, dream cookies (peanut butter, oatmeal and m&ms) and my two fav. Girl scout cookies are thin mints and samoas. Yumyum, how about you?

**Previously**

"Now," she said coming between the two guys and hooking each of her arms through one of theirs, "are we ready?"

Grinning the boys both nodded and the trio set off down the street to Flourish and Blotts.

**Chapter Twenty**

**A Cacophony of Protests**

"Mione, we were in there for ten minutes. How could you have possibly gotten so many books in ten minutes?"

The three had just exited Flourish and Blotts with Hermione carrying a bulging bag in each hand.

"What? I had to get some books for the next month, though I don't think these will quite do it. Hmmm, maybe I should go back in and get a few more."

"No," Ron said quickly, "no, I think you've got enough."

"Yeah, how about we move on?"

The trio spent the rest of the morning walking along the streets, shopping, talking and joking. It was when Harry asked Hermione what she had been so giddy about earlier that Draco was mentioned, and Ron's scowl returned. Hermione noticed this.

"What is it, Ron?"

"It's nothing."

"Ron, every time I talk about Draco or am with Draco you scowl. Now what gives?"

"That's just it. To the two of you he's Draco, but to me, he always has been and always will be Malfoy. It's just that the two of you didn't grow up in the wizarding world hearing about how horrible the Malfoys were. And…I guess I'm still not quite used to this new Draco. I just don't want you to get hurt, Hermione."

"Ron…"

"No, don't say it, I know, I'm crazy and I can trust him, yada yada yada."

"Ron," Hermione interjected yet again, "that's not what I was going to say."

"It wasn't?"

"Nope."

"Oh," Ron had the grace to look sheepish. "Well, what were you going to say?"

"Thank you. For caring. It means a lot to me that you care enough to speak up about it. But I promise you, he's not the same as his father. And he's not the same smarmy prat we knew the first five years of our Hogwarts careers."

"Okay, just promise me, if he breaks your heart, I get to break his face."

Hermione grinned, "Deal."

They turned to Harry, who had been silently standing watching the entire exchange. The three went into The Three Broomsticks and separated to their separate groups, but not before Hermione convinced Ron to stay with the guys.

"Afternoon ladies," Ginny said, coming in a few minutes later.

"Hey, Gin," Padma said, "Where have you been?"

"Oh just picking something up."

"Way to be descriptive, Gin," Hermione said.

"Well, you see, we all missed someone's birthday…by about a month and a half." She looked down sheepishly then back up and all the girls chorused, "Happy Belated Birthday, Mione."

"Really?" Hermione looked at the bag in front of her then around the table, her gaze finally settling back on Ginny. "Do I get to open it now?"

"If you want to, it's nothing big."

Hermione looked at the bag. It was about as wide and high as she was across, and as skinny as her wrist. She peeked into the bag and her eyes widened. "You guys! I can't believe you! Thank you!" she said both shocked and ecstatic. Looking up, Hermione pulled out a black satin slip dress. It had a cinched empire waistline and a sequin embellished, lace trimmed v-neck. The hem was also trimmed in the same lace as the neck.

It was immediately recognizable as being the dress Hermione had worn in a rather vivid dream she had relayed to Ginny. Said dream involved Hermione and Draco and the most perfect date in the world. He had been Prince Charming to her fairy tale Princess.

And now, here was the dress she had worn in her dream, down to the last detail. She looked back up at Ginny and threw her arms around her. When she let go, she swatted Ginny's shoulder.

"Ow," Ginny said pretending to nurse an aching shoulder, "what was that for?"

"I can't believe you didn't tell me that you were doing this. I hope it wasn't too expensive," Hermione began nervously.

"Hermione, chill. Need I remind you what you got me? Umm, I think it was a brand new Silverwolf, the best broom in the world. You know, the one that still hasn't been released to the public?"

"Yeah, and how about what you got me last year?"

"Oh come on, Mandy, it was a just a few DVDs and books. Nothing much."

Padma rolled her eyes, "Yeah, 'cause you know buying me copies of all the existing _Star Wars_ DVDs and the _Art of Star Wars_ wasn't expensive at all."

"Yeah, and how about the TV and DVD player you got me?" Mandy chimed in.

"Not to mention," Lisa started, "The series of books you bought me on _Living as a Muggle in the Middle Ages_. I know for fact that those aren't cheap."

Hermione threw up her hands in defeat, "Fine! I admit defeat! But just what is your point?"

"Let us do something for you, for a change," they all said simultaneously.

"Oh alright, I give up, thank you guys so much!" Hermione got up from the table and hugged each girl in turn.

Later on, Draco and Hermione were walking down the main street of Hogsmeade, hand in hand, on their way back to school. Each was comfortable just being with the other. Neither felt pressed to have conversation and both were thinking about the day.

Draco had had a nice lunch with the guys talking a lot about Quidditch and of course girls. Before that he and Blaise had been shopping. Draco was already looking out for something for Hermione for Christmas, he wanted it to be the perfect gift. So far, it looked like it was going to be multiple small to medium sized gifts. He had already been in Flourish and Blotts, while she was there, and gotten a book he had seen her fingering longingly on her way out. Fingering and not buying because she had already bought the maximum amount of books she allowed herself per month.

Hermione was going over her day in her head. First had been the morning with the boys. They had all been semi-sneakily been shopping for each other, but they all knew that the other two were doing the same thing. So far, she hadn't seen anything she wanted to get the two of them, but she had seen a pendant that she liked for Draco. She decided she would get him several not so big gifts instead of one big gift.

They each felt a jolt through their wrists, the ones joined together, the ones that also happened to be bearing a magical tattoo, when their thoughts turned to the dinner they had just finished, at the same time. They looked at each other and shared a smile, thoughts immediately returning to dinner,

Draco had taken her to a relatively unknown place in a corner of the village known only as "The Restaurant". At first, Hermione had gotten annoyed with Draco when she had asked where they were going and each and every time Draco replied, "The Restaurant." Then he explained.

The Restaurant was a rather large place, dimly lit and darkly furnished. The floors were covered in a dark plush carpet. The tables were low to the ground and the seating was…interesting. It seemed to be a mixture between a rocker and a couch. The backs and seats were curved in one large "c" and there was thick poofy padding, making them very comfortable. Each table had two of these, one on each side, so that, while eating, the two could sit across from each other and talk. After eating, one would disappear and leave a space for the couple to see the stage set up in the corner.

Tonight there had bee someone playing a muggle piano. Draco had never seen one before and had been stunned at the amount of work that went into one piece. They had sat there for quite awhile, Hermione leaning into Draco with her arms about his waist, Draco with one arm draped around her shoulder and the other playing with the sleeve of her jacket.

They had stayed there for a while and left only when Draco had remembered that they had to get back up to the school. And now, here they were, on the path back to school.

There was someone walking behind them. Draco had noticed it and figured that it was just a student. But when Hermione dropped something and they stopped to pick it up, so did the person behind them. Draco quietly pulled out his wand. The steps started again, and by the sound of them, they were coming closer.

A few seconds later they could see the shape of a person, the build indicated that it was a male. Hermione also pulled out her wand.

"Lumos," rang out three voiced in the dark. Light burst forth from the tip of three wands. Draco and Hermione looked at the person across from them.

"Jason?" Hermione's voice was heavy with disbelief. "What? Why? How?"

Without allowing time for an answer, Hermione threw her arms around him. Jason smiled and hugged back. Draco looked on jealously. _Okay, you can let go now,_ he thought. Hermione pulled back finally.

"Nice to see you, too," Jason said.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm going to Hogwarts now. My folks moved to London this summer. My dad got a job offer with the company, which required us to move across an entire ocean," he said grinning.

"That's amazing! So, did you just get here?"

"Yeah, and Kassandra should be around here somewhere." Hermione had made her way back over to Draco and was leaning back into him with his arms around her waist and his chin on the top of her head. Then she craned her head forward as another shape became discernable in the darkness, "Kassandra?"

"Hermione?"

Once again, Hermione flung herself at a member of the Brody family. "How are you?"

"I'm great, especially now that I'm here. I can't wait to meet everyone you've been telling me about. I've been trying to tell my brother about some of the people you're going to introduce us to, but he doesn't seem to be interested in anyone but you. Go figure," she said grinning. Behind Hermione, Draco glared at Jason who was staring at Hermione. Kassandra saw Draco and said, "Oh, who is this? I'm sorry, I'm terrible."

Hermione grinned. She stepped back and took Draco's hand, a gesture which was noted by Jason. "This is my boyfriend, Draco Malfoy. Draco this is Kassandra and Jason Brody. I met them two summers ago. They were here from America and came to Silver one night."

"Yeah, for the longest time, I thought her name was Danica," Kassandra remarked laughingly. "How do you do, Draco?" She stepped forward and offered her hand.

Draco shook it, "It's nice to meet you. If you need anything just let one of us know."

"Thanks. And, this is my brother Jason, but he'll be jealous of you for a week or two, until he sees how happy you make her. Which I've already told him you do," she shot a look at her brother, "On account of the fact that Hermione writes me regularly. I've heard a lot about you."

Draco looked at Hermione, who was leaning against him again, and said, "All good things I hope."

"Well, interesting things at the least," Kassandra said, grinning,

**A/N:** Sorry it took so long! I've had a ton of work to do, and I'm working on these videos for something, so I'm swamped, and I don't know how long it will be until I can update, but hopefully it won't be too long.


	21. Appropriate Meanings

**A/N:** Hope you didn't have to wait too long, but I've been buried in schoolwork.

**WannaBArtist:** Happy belated birthday! And no worries, I'm not old enough to be eligible to have a kid. But thanks for the thought.

**Robin777:** I'm glad you like them. Enjoy the chapter.

**Tinka Shimmer Belle:** I AM SO SORRY! I forgot to put in a riddle for you! I feel so bad, I'm so sorry. This chapter will have at least one. I'll make sure of that. And I know what you mean about not really getting too far in the baking department. Hope you like the chapter.

**IamSiriusgrl:** Thanks! Enjoy.

**Silverwolf130492: **Don' worry about a thing, in time you'll come to understand absolutely nothing. And even if he doesn't break them up, it will still get more interesting.

**Steelo:** Well, I hope this answers your question about Jason and Hermione, and I'm sorry it took so long, mountain of homework.

**Sirusblackshottie:** You're crazy, but I luv ya anyways! I also luv pixie sticks, wanna email me some?

**Tiarwen:** There is nothing wrong with simple. Simple good. Enjoy. :-P

**Illegitime Carborandum should not apply: **ummm, okay, I have no idea what that was about. Enjoy the chapter?

**Smiles28: **Don't have to wait anymore!

**Michelle Felton:** Glad you liked. Hope you like again.

**Previously**

"Thanks. And, this is my brother Jason, but he'll be jealous of you for a week or two, until he sees how happy you make. Which I've already told him you do," she shot a look at her brother, "On account of the fact that Hermione writes me regularly. I've heard a lot about you."

Draco looked at Hermione, who was leaning against him again, and said, "All good things I hope."

"Well, interesting things at the least," Kassandra said, grinning.

**Chapter Twenty-One**

**Appropriate Meanings**

"Hey, uh uh," Draco said, pulling Hermione back toward him. The two were back in their common room and Hermione was heading toward her room when he spoke. "I don't think so. I want to talk to you."

He pulled her over to the couch in front of the fire and sat pulling her down with him. She snuggled down into his embrace and tilted her head up at him, "Yes?"

"What exactly did you tell them about me?"

"Nothing bad, don't worry." Draco raised an eyebrow at her. "The only stuff I told her was from the end of fifth year on. All the stuff about you being a good little Draco," she said the last three words with a babying voice and leaned up and kissed him.

"Fine, well what about that Jason guy? Were you two an item or something?"

"Not exactly."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"We went out a couple times, but when I found out that he didn't live here, I told him we should just be friends. We have been ever since. So no reason to get jealous, besides, if I were interested in anyone but you, why would I be with you?"

"Good point. Unless you're settling?"

She turned around so that she could look him in the eye with out getting a crick in her neck. She gave him an 'Are ya kiddin?' look and said, "Draco, the only reason I would ever 'settle' would be if I couldn't be with _you_. Not the other way around," she finished, reaching a hand up to cup the side of his face. "I'm with you. You have nothing to worry about. I promise. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Now, are we done with the 'jealous Draco' bit? Because I really want a kiss and then sleep."

Draco grinned and complied. He leaned towards her and kissed her slowly. She opened her mouth slightly which Draco took as an invitation to enter. Hermione melted into him and began to kiss him with a little more passion. Eventually Draco pulled away. Hermione looked at him questioningly.

"Didn't you want sleep?"

"Yes, but-"

"Come sleep with me tonight. I'm not suggesting anything other than sleep."

Hermione smiled warmly at him and kissed him chastely in answer. Draco then got up, offered her hand and helped her off the couch. She went into her room to change and then to the bathroom. While she was getting ready, he was too, only he went into his room and said a quick spell for tidiness. Then he changed into his pajamas, which consisted of a pair of dark blue satin pants and no shirt.

A few minutes later, Hermione entered his room also wearing satin pajama bottoms, though hers in general covered far less. She had her black hair pulled into a loose braid that ended at the top of the low, very short, black satin shorts she was wearing. The tattoo on her lower back was quite obvious and the chaos symbol was quite obvious. For a top, she wore a black, long sleeve, cotton top that had been cropped and it looked like there was elastic around the bottom so that it wouldn't ride up.

Draco's mouth hung open. He cleared his throat as she looked at him expectantly, "You look…"

"Yes?"

"Completely and utterly ravishing. Drop dead sexy, take your pick, I got more."

"Not too bad yourself," she said striding over to him and running her hands over his chiseled muscular chest.

Draco groaned and caught her hands, "You have to stop that or I'm not going to be able to control myself."

Hermione smirked and kissed him quickly. Then she asked him, "Which side of the bed do you want?"

"Left."

"Good, I always sleep on the right." She disengaged herself from him and ran around to the other side of the bed. In one fluid move she had slid underneath the covers. Laying her head down on the pillow, she immediately raised it back up. She looked at the pillow in disgust and produced her wand from under the covers (Providing Draco with some speculations as to where she had been stowing it) and summoned her pillow. She threw Draco's pillow to the floor and replaced it with her own.

Draco stood there watching the whole thing with an amused expression on his face. One minute she was pure seductress, the next, playful girl, reminding him of the panther her second form was. One minute deadly, the next, playful. It suited her.

"Draco?"

Hearing his name, Draco stumbled out of his thoughts and looked at Hermione. "Yes?"

"Are you planning on sleeping there, standing up?"

He smiled, "No, I really wasn't." He lifted the covers and slid underneath them.

Immediately Hermione moved towards him and snuggled into his arm, resting her head on his chest. Draco's arm went to her waist and held her to him. A few minutes later, and he could tell she was asleep. As tired as he was, Draco held sleep at bay for as long as possible. Right now, he just wanted to enjoy this, having Hermione in his arms.

**"So….** What classes have you got?"

"Hey Jason! Where's Kassandra?"

"I dunno, probly still asleep. We're getting sorted this morning."

"Awesome!"

"Are you looking for someone? You seem kinda distracted."

"Oh, sorry," she answered, shaking her head and looking at him briefly. "As a matter of fact, I am looking for someone. I'm looking for Draco. He wasn't supposed to be taking this long."

Jason frowned, "Oh."

"Oh Merlin! It can't be!"

Before Jason could ask what the hell she was on about, Hermione was out of her seat and sprinting towards the figures who had just entered the hall, looking around dazedly.

"Hermione!" chorused the voices of four disbelieving voices, three of which were feminine and the other distinctly masculine.

"Oh Merlin!" she exclaimed again. "It can't be! Aella? Selene? Connor? What are you all doing here?"

The boy, Connor, answered her with a slight American accent, "Didn't Jason and Kassandra tell you? All of our parents moved here, their company sent them all over, so here we are."

Hermione shot Jason a glare, who shrugged, and then threw herself into the arms of each of them in turn, hugging them tightly.

Connor was of medium height and build, around 5' 11" and obviously muscular, but not chiseled. He had high cheekbones and tan skin. His brown eyes stood out remarkably against his skin and his straight pearly white teeth even more so. His sandy blonde hair made him look like a muggle movie star. He wore muggle jeans and a T-shirt that said American Eagle on it. No one in the hall had any idea what it meant.

Aella looked much like Hermione. She had medium length brown hair, green eyes instead of blue, and the same olive tone as Mione. She was a little bit skinnier, and had a few less curves but was still beautiful. She wore a black spagetti strap tank top with a pair of jeans that were ripped in many places.

Selene was interesting. She had shining black hair that was up in a complex bun and was wearing a slight silver chain weaved throughout her hair. In the very center of the top of her head, hung a silver crescent moon. Her eyes seemed to change color from every angle. First they were black, then white, then silver or grey. They were not a set color, they changed constantly. She had a fai, but slightly tanned complexion. She wore a white T-shirt along with a black mini jean skirt. On her feet she wore a pair of black stiletto boots.

"I still can't believe you're all here!"

"You better believe it," Aella said, "cuz, we're here to stay."  
"I'm so glad, you guys have to come meet my friends."

Hermione led them to the table she shared with Draco, took out her wand, expanded it and drew eight extra chairs. She told them to sit, and they did so, joined a moment later by Jason and Kassandra. Hermione brought Ginny and Blaise over and started looking for Draco again. She found him sitting and talking to Selene. She wondered when he had come in.

"Hey," she said, kissing him on the cheek, a move that did not go unnoticed by Jason. "When did you get here?"

"Right before they came in, you were talking to Jason."

"Oh."

Blaise broke into the conversation. "Hermione?"

"Yes?"  
"Does your friend Connor have a thing for redheads?"

"Not that I know of, why?"

"He keeps staring at Ginny, and interrupting me, so that he can talk to her."

Hermione frowned. "I'll talk to him later, okay?"

"Sure."

She looked at the group of friends, happily talking together, and noticed a few things.

1) Connor was indeed staring at Ginny and interrupting Blaise whenever he would start to speak. There was a longing in his eye, and he seemed to be drawing some kind of animal on the napkin in front of him.

2) Jason was staring at her, and blushed and looked away when he saw she caught him, the turned to Aella, who had stabbed herself with something because she was talking so animatedly and quickly, and healed her hand quickly.

3) Selene was watching her as well.

4) Kassandra's eyes had glazed over, and her hair seemed to be blowing by a gentle invisible wind.

It was as she was watching them, that a thought struck her and she pulled a book out of her bag. Turning pages, she read certain passages, and would look at her friends in turn, read another passage, and look at her friends. "Oh my god," she whispered, before fainting.

**A/N** And that;s it, folks. For now. I know it was a kinda weird chapter, but this is me. There will be more of the new characters. Tinka Shimmer Belle-JUST FOR YOU-can you figure out what she was reading? And what made her faint?


	22. Freakish Conicidences Or Not So Much

**A/N:** I can't believe I got this written so fast. It just seem to keep coming, so I kept writing. Plus a change in venue may have helped. I hope to be updating more often now that a lot of my work is done, and getting done, so I hope to be writing more. MAKE SURE YOU READ THE A/N AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER!

**Smiles28:** Yup, it's weird, just like me! I hope you like this chapter.

**Steelo:** I dunno! I guess you'll just have to wait and see if Jason is the meddling type. Buwahahaha!

**Sirusblackshottie:** I'm glad you think it was cute, hope you like this chapter.

**Tinka Shimmer Belle:** You get a cookie for effort, but it wasn't a book of prophecies. I'll tell you during the chapter. Enjoy! (read the author's note at the end and let me know)

**Silverwolf130492:** Sorry, no prophecy, Tinka Shimmer Belle also thought they were in a prophecy, hmmm, maybe that's a hint…we'll see. Make sure you read the author's note at the end.

**Future movie maker:** YAY! _Someone_ guessed what was up with Kassandra, I was hoping someone would figure it out. Cookie for you. But Kassandra didn't faint, Hermione did. And no, Hermione didn't have a vision by way of Kassandra either. You'll see. READ!

**Robin777:** I'm glad you like it, I love cliffies, but only when they're good ones, if they're not like 'OMG WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN!' then its no fun. Enjoy.

**Jennifer13:** Thank you so much, it's always good to get a new reviewer, and fan! The answer to why Mione fainted is below…read on!

**Previously**

She looked at the group of friends, happily talking together, and noticed a few things.

1) Connor was indeed staring at Ginny and interrupting Blaise whenever he would start to speak. There was a longing in his eye, and he seemed to be drawing some kind of animal on the napkin in front of him.

2) Jason was staring at her, and blushed and looked away when he saw she caught him, the turned to Aella, who had stabbed herself with something because she was talking so animatedly and quickly, and healed her hand quickly.

3) Selene was watching her as well.

4) Kassandra's eyes had glazed over, and her hair seemed to be blowing by a gentle invisible wind.

It was as she was watching them, that a thought struck her and she pulled a book out of her bag. Turning pages, she read certain passages, and would look at her friends in turn, read another passage, and look at her friends. "Oh my god," she whispered, before fainting.

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

**Freakish Coincidences…Or Not So Much**

"Ouch."

"She's awake!"

"Ron! Shut up! Don't be so loud! She's probably got a killer headache."

Hermione blinked slowly and thought. That sounded like Ginny, but what on earth are they talking about? Where was she? What had happened? The last thing she remembered was being in the Great Hall, and eating with all her friends. The book. That was the last thing she remembered. She bolted upright and looked around the room

Ron was sitting at the foot of her bed. Ginny was sitting on her left with Blaise. She looked to her right as she felt a hand on hers, and saw Draco. She smiled as she saw him and he smiled back, relieved that she was awake. Harry was sitting beside Draco and looking rather pale. Her other friends were in the room as well.

"You guys?"

Kassandra rushed over to her side, "Oh my god, Hermione. I'm so sorry! I should have said something." She looked up and the end of her rant. "You know about all of us, don't you? You read it in your book, right?"

"Yeah, how…wait, never mind. I read that, too. Oh Merlin, you can't be serious," she raised her head to look at her friends. They were all looking at her. She turned to Draco and then turned back to the group, "You guys? Would you mind if I asked some of you to leave for a little bit? I need to talk to a couple individuals." There were murmurs of assent and everyone looked at her expectantly. "Okay, Kassandra, I'm going to need you to stay with me, to help explain. And Draco, would you mind just stay-"

"Of course."

"Thanks. Then Blaise and Ginny, I want you two here right off the bat, and Selene and Aella. You two stay, too. I'll talk to you guys later," she said, addressing the boys.

Ron and Harry looked a little hurt, but Hermione didn't see it because she was scribbling furiously on a piece of paper. She finished, and discretely turned it into a paper airplane and it flew around the room and into a pocket of Harry's robes. Everyone but Harry and Hermione missed this. Harry looked at her, she nodded, he looked pointedly at Ron, and she nodded again. They smiled. Harry led Ron and the others out the door.

Hermione looked around the room at the group sitting around her. "I can't stay in here another minute," she announced. "Let's go out to the lake."

The group trudged down to the side of the lake and spread out on the grass. Draco was leaning against the tree and Hermione was sitting in between his legs leaning against him in turn. He had his arms wrapped protectively around her middle, providing silent strength and comfort.

Kassandra sat on their right, Ginny on her left, Blaise beside her. All three of them were looking at her anxiously. Kassandra because she knew it what Hermione was about to say was…well…the only word for it would be unbelieveable. She hoped that everyone would believe her. Ginny and Blaise because they were worried about her.

Selene had a slight shimmering aura about her, no one but Hermione saw it. She was watching Hermione with a calculated expression of concern and curiosity. Everything about her made sense now.

Aella was fidgeting slightly, which seemed to fit perfectly. She was playing with the grass, picking it and making an intricate crown that Hermione could never have had the patience for, which in itself was odd.

She took a deep breath. "Okay, here goes. Draco?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know what your name means?"

"Of course I do. It means dragon. What's that got to do with anything?"

"Well, your name fits you perfectly. Do you agree?"

"Of course I do."

"My name, Hermione, is a feminine form of Hermes, the Greek God of speed and luck. Kassandra, you know what your name means don't you?"

"Yes, I do. It means 'shining upon man' and is from Greek mythology. But that's not what surprised you about my name."

"No, it wasn't. But we'll come back to that. Selene, I'm assuming you know about your name."

"Of course I do, how could I not?"

"I thought as much. It means 'moon', and is also from Greek mythology. Selene was the Goddess of the moon. How about you, Aella?"

"I have no clue what my name means, or what any of this is about."

"Your name is also from Greek mythology. It means 'whirlwind'. It was the name of an Amazon warrior, who was unfortunately killed by Heracles on one of his quests.

"Oh, um..ow."

Hermione chuckled at that. She turned to look at Ginny. "How bout you, Gin?" Ginny shook her head. "It's a form of Guinevere. It means 'fair' or 'white'. And, Blaise, sorry, but I have no idea what yours means."

Blaise shrugged and said, "Okay, no worries."

Hermione smiled at him, "Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what the hell any of this has to do with why I fainted. Well, lets take Kassandra for example. Cassandra was the daughter of Priam and sister to Paris. She was a Trojan princess. Apollo gave her the gift of prophecy, but she scorned him and so he cursed her. The curse was that no one would believe her visions. Our Kassandra is a seer. But, fortunately, she doesn't have the curse about people not believing her visions."

"Actually," Kassandra cut in, "a lot of times I don't even understand what I'm seeing, so I don't even tell anyone sometimes. But then I met Hermione and she told me how important it was that I at least wrote down what they were, because they could be like pieces of a puzzle. And she was right. For bigger events, I get lots of little pieces. And now they start to make sense sometimes. Today, I saw it a couple seconds before it happened. I saw it all from Hermione's eyes. I saw her looking at all of us, and myself having a vision. Then I saw her look at her book and faint. But I didn't have time to get her out of there because it wasn't just a few seconds before it happened."

They all looked between the two, except for Draco who just looked at Kassandra as he was behind Hermione.

"Okay," he said. "I think I get what you're trying to say. Our names all fit with our personality. Like my name means dragon and that's what my second form is. Right?"

Hermione turned and grinned up at him. "Exactly. Aella?"

Aella looked up from her grass tiara, "Yeah?"

"Your name means 'whirlwind' and it was the name of an Amazon warrior. Ever notice how you can just blow right by things…like a whirlwind, and other times be incredibly still, and well, conditioned to do something…like a warrior? It makes sense if you think about it a certain way."

Aella looked thoughtful, "That does sound like me," she laughed, "and I think I understand it, and I think you're right."

"Right. Now can you excuse me and Selene for just a second?"

Hermione and Selene got up and walked a few yards away. Hermione stopped and looked at her friend, Selene looked right back.

"What do you think they're talking about?"

"I dunno."

"This is so weird," Aella announced.

"You got that right," Ginny said. "I wonder what Harry's, Ron's, Connor's and Jason's names mean."

"I could tell you," Kassandra said. They all looked at her incredulously. "I saw it remember. I saw the book."

"Oh."

"Right."

"Forgot about that."

"Will you tell us?"

"Well, I don't think it would hurt. Harry is a form of Henry and means 'home' and 'power, ruler'. It was the name of many Kings of England. Ron's name means 'advice'. It too is English."

"That makes sense for Ron," Ginny said, "He never listens to advice."

They all laughed and Kassandra continued. "Connor is Irish and means 'wolf lover'. I think, Ginny, that would explain his fixation with you if we're staying on the path of the personalities being similar or related to the meanings of their names."

"Oh my god," Ginny whispered. She looked at Blaise, who's expression had darkened.

"Jason is from Greek mythology and means 'to heal'. That would be why he was able to heal your hand so well, Aella."

"Oh, yeah. Huh," Aella commented, looking down at the hand Jason had previously healed.

Draco hadn't listened to Aella's last comment and didn't take in or take part in the ensuing silly conversation, but instead looked at Hermione. Her facial expressions. Each one told so much. She wasn't the **most** beautiful physically speaking, though she was stunning and came pretty close, but she was the most beautiful when taking everything into account. Her personality, the way her face lit up. He loved the way her eyes twinkled when there was something she had just learned and was dying to tell someone. He loved the way that she smiled, especially the one she reserved just for him. He wondered what they were talking about that had made her as shocked and disbelieving as she looked now.

"You've figured it out, haven't you? You can see my aura, can't you?"

Hermione nodded. "How?"

"Well, the things is, the Greek Gods and Goddesses really were immortal. Just not in the typical sense of the world. The powers are passed on through generations. Of course, I will live about twice as long as you. But I will die. You see, Gods and Goddesses are still very much alive and among us. When one 'dies' the powers have already been reborn into a young woman of 16. I had just come into my powers when we met."

"How did you know that you had these powers?"

"I had a dream about the original Selene, and then each of the subsequent Goddesses. They told me everything."

"What about the aura?"

Selene smiled, it was a sly and knowing smile. "It's something that only other Goddesses, no matter how powerful, can see."

Hermione stood open mouthed for a few minutes, allowing this to sink in. "What?"

"You're a Goddess, Hermione."

**A/N:** I honestly hadn't planned for it to go this way, but it just kept coming out of me, and this is where it ended up! I hope you like it! Now, show of hands, how many want there to be a prophecy about one or more of them? I'll try to update soon. Review please. Kat


	23. I Don't Think So, Good Point

**A/N:** Here's another one! Just to let you know, I've taken a lot of freedoms with they mythology to suit my purposes.

**Robin777:** Thank you, I will keep that in mind. And I'm glad you liked, I hope you like this chapter, too.

**Future movie maker:** Not Selene, Kassandra, but yes, you were. Hope you like it. And do you think I should make a prophecy?

**Jennifer13:** Ummm, looks shiftily from side to side and answers unconvincingly well, not exactly, no. Meaning, of course, yes.

**WannaBArtist:** I was starting to wonder if you just stopped reviewing. I would be sad. Hope you enjoy.

**Previously**

"What about the aura?"

Selene smiled; it was a sly and knowing smile. "It's something that only other Goddesses, no matter how powerful, can see."

Hermione stood open mouthed for a few minutes, allowing this to sink in. "What?"

"You're a Goddess, Hermione."

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

**I Don't Think So…Good Point**

"I don't think so. I mean, I can't be a Goddess."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. I just CAN'T."

"Why? I am."

"Good point."

"…"

"So…what kind of Goddess am I?"

"Well, each Goddess has her own kind of aura. Take mine for example. Mine's kinda a shimmery white, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, no other Goddess has that kind of aura."

"I think I get it. What's mine look like?"

"Close your eyes and believe that you really are a Goddess. Then you'll be able to feel it, not just see it. But keep in mind that you have to consciously be looking for it. It's one of your powers. To be able to see auras."

Hermione did as Selene told her. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to believe that she really was some Goddess. As soon as she did so she felt something all over. It sounded so clichéd, but she felt complete. She felt lucky, and she felt this overwhelming sense to turn into her panther form and go running through the forest. She felt so many things; she couldn't pick one to focus on. The most overwhelming one was a combination of strength and confidence. Selene gasped.

"Hermione…"

"What?"

Hermione opened her eyes and looked at her hands. There was a slight silver shimmer over them. But when she looked at other parts of her body there was a difference. The silver seemed to turn to black around her head and hair and upper body, down to her elbows, and turn to gold around her feet.

"You have no idea what this means," Selene said in an awed voice.

"What? What does what mean?"

"Your aura is three different colors. That means that you have powers from three different Goddesses, you may even have powers from a God, because the gold around your knees, gold was associated with males generally."

"Do you know what they would be?"

"Well. The silver represents Artemis I believe. Are you feeling an overwhelming sense of confidence, strength, maybe to return to the forest and nature?"

"Oh, yeah, majorly."

"That makes sense, the silver makes up the majority of your aura. Artemis is the Goddess of the Hunt, wilderness. What else are you feeling?"

"I feel like my chances at getting something right are really good, like I'm really lucky."

"That would be a trait of Hermes…"

"The God I'm named after."

"Right."

"The black is the only one I'm drawing a blank on. But I'm sure I could help you find out. The only thing that is confusing me is why you didn't notice your powers sooner. Most get them at 16."

"Maybe that's for those who have no one to show them."

Selene smiled at her in response.

Later that day, Hermione and Draco were in the common room. They were sitting on one of the couches and Draco was asleep with his head in her lap. Her right hand was running through his hair as she red through books about Hermes and Artemis. She noticed that each book, the title more specifically, held a tiny bit of the aura of the deity. That's how she had picked them out so fast. She had also spotted a couple books that had a little bit of the black aura that she had around her head and had picked those up as well.

She turned to a page that called out to her and saw that the picture was of a woman. She was clearly Egyptian, and had a large sun disc on her head. She read that the Goddess's name was Isis.

The deities that she now represented were interesting. At the top, and most largely represented, from the top of her head to her shoulders was the aura of Isis.

_Isis was a mother goddess and was identified more specifically as the mother of Horus, and thus of the King. Isis tended to be represented as a woman with a throne or solar disc between cow's horns, on her head. She was sometimes regarded as the personification of the throne: the hieroglyph for her name is the image of a throne, and her lap came to be seen as the throne of Egypt. She was also frequently depicted with huge, sheltering wings. She was part of the Ennead of Heliopolis, and as consort to Osiris and mother of Horus; she appeared in the triad of deities worshipped at Abydos. Her best-known cult-centre was on the island of Philae, on the southern border of Egypt, near Aswan. She was particularly closely associated with magic. Her ability to heal and to transform herself into any guise she desired is evident in the myths about her._

Hermione was amazed. From what she knew of other Egyptian deities, and from what she had just read, Isis was one of the most powerful Goddesses and one of the most revered. She considered her appearance and compared it to reliefs of Isis she had seen. Both she and Isis had black hair. Eye color was indeterminable as Egyptian art never distinguished between the pupil and the iris. Now that she thought about it, even the color of her skin, more tan than both her mother and father, looked slightly Egyptian. Her features held more of a diluted Greek ancestry, from Artemis and Hermes.

Hermione had always loved taking quizzes. Her favorites were personality quizzes. Whenever she did the quizzes that were entitled "Which Goddess are You?" she always turned out to be Artemis with Athena coming in a close second. Now she knew why.

Artemis was the daughter of Zeus, the king of the Gods, and the Goddess Leto, and sister to Apollo. She was the Goddess of the wilderness, the hunt and wild animals. When she was a newborn Goddess, she went to her father and asked him to grant her a wish. She wanted to remain forever a wild young maiden hunting through the woods, and she asked him to promise never to maker her marry. Zeus consented, and then she asked him for fifty fleet nymphs as companions and a pack of lop-eared hounds to hunt with. Her father gave her all that she asked, including a set of silver arrows and a silver bow to be her brother's opposites.

There was so much more about Artemis that Hermione knew. She also knew that, like Isis, parts of her personality fit her perfectly. The loving wilderness and animals, to be allowed to do as she pleased. To be so strong and independent. They were things Hermione both had and wanted. Hermione came across a slim book, so old that there were charms all around it, protecting it, charms that she had never even heard of before. It had the most detailed description she had ever read, and a depiction that made her stare.

The woman she saw depicted there could have been her twin. Clothing was the only difference between this woman and Hermione. From the midnight hair and sapphire eyes to the toned legs, everything screamed Hermione. She eventually tore herself away from the picture and looked through the rest of the book. It was full of detailed descriptions of the Greek Gods and exquisite depictions of them.

Hermione let the book fall, dazed. She looked down at Draco. She smiled thoughtfully, thinking about how peaceful he looked while he slept. He looked so innocent, the thought made her laugh, and forgetting to stifle her laughter, she woke him.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing. It's time for dinner. Let's go."

She helped him to his feet. He started towards the portrait hole. 'He's so bloody amazing,' she thought. 'Wait a minute, what was that? It can't be. No. It is.'

'What's she staring at me like I've got a second head for? It's not like I grew one while I slept. Why's she looking at my arm like that?'

"Draco?"

"What's wrong, Mione?" Draco took her hands, noticing that they were shaking as much as her voice, and led her back to the couch they had just vacated.

"How'd you get that scar?"

She was looking down at his left arm. He was wearing a t-shirt that showed off his body, and his left elbow. "I don't know. I've had it for as long as I can remember. Why?"

The scar she was asking about was crescent shaped and located right over the bone of his left elbow. He had no recollection of getting any injury that would result in such a scar.

"It means…it means…I don't know what it means, other than that you're a descendant of Orion."

"You mean like the constellation?"

"Yes."

"From Greek mythology?"

"Yes."

"The one I look similar to?"

"Yes. Wait. How did you know that?"

"My mother told me."

"So, you know?"

"Yes."

"I can see it now, you know. Orion wasn't just some great hunter. He was a son of Poseidon. My mother didn't want anyone to know about it, and so named me something else, which is still rather suitable, if I do say so myself."

"How long have you known?"

"As long as you have."

He smiled down at her, and she smiled up at him. She leaned up and kissed him. As much as he wanted to give in to all of his emotions and hormones, now wasn't the time, so Draco broke away fairly quickly and steered her towards the portrait hole.

"Dinner time," he said in answer to her curious gaze. He wrapped an arm around her waist, and she did the same, and they started off towards the Great Hall."

"How long do think it will be till she realizes that she actually has powers?"

"How long did it take you?"

"I had the dreams, she doesn't," Selene told Kassandra that night. "I have no idea."

"I hope my brother doesn't try anything stupid to try and come between those two. It's meant to be. Never before have Orion and Artemis come together, not since Apollo killed him."

Kassandra's eyes glazed over, her hair blew slightly in an invisible wind. Selene just waited for a few minutes. Finally, Kassandra came out of it, and promptly groaned and threw up her dinner. "No, oh no," she groaned, starting to cry.

**A/N: **Okay, wow, going in a different direction than I originally intended. But hey! I hope you like it. Feedback please.


	24. Prophecy? What's a Prophecy?

**A/N:** I'm glad you all seem to like where the story is going, I was kinda worried, but not so much anymore. I have over 150 reviews! THANKS SO MUCH! And I just realized that I hadn't described Kassandra, or Jason. So I will do that this chapter.

**Steelo: ** Thanks for your reviews, And no worries, there won't be any killing of Draco, we wouldn't have a story if he did. And I so agree with him being perfect. Plus he's just dead sexy. I have updated just so you can rant or rave some more.

**Jennifer13:** I like cliffys, but only when they work, and no worries, it's not going to be a full out war, the school will be the perimeter of the battle grounds, Hehehe.

**Robin777:** I love mythology, that's why I decided to use it.

**Future movie maker:** Like I told Robin777, I love mythology and wanted to incorporate it. There will be mythology throughout the story, but not so much as these chapters. It'll taper off in a little bit. And if you look at the last chapter, I already started setting it up as a prophecy. Hehehe.

**Smiles28**: Thanks for both of your reviews, I'm glad you're lovin it so much. And here's an update just for you.

**Silverwolf130492:** Thankys, I'm glad you like it. I'm especially glad that you like the mythology stuff. Well, and with Jason, he may or may not succeed. I guess you'll just have to wait to find out.

**WannaBArtist: **Boot camp! Wow. Sorry you'll miss the story. I doubt that the story will be finished by July, so sorry. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

**LIZ:** I'm glad you like it so much! As for it being more about the mythology don't worry; it's going to get back to the couple during this chapter, I hope.

**Previously**

Kassandra's eyes glazed over, her hair blew slightly in an invisible wind. Selene just waited for a few minutes. Finally, Kassandra came out of it, and promptly groaned and threw up her dinner. "No, oh no," she groaned, starting to cry.

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

**Prophecy? What's a Prophecy? **

_Okay, okay, got to be calm, I won't be able to explain it if I'm not calm. They won't listen to me if I'm not calm. How DO I tell them? Oy._ These thoughts were going through Kassandra as she walked up to the portrait of Hermione and Draco's common room. Granted she wasn't supposed to know where it was, but these kinds of things happen when you are a seer.

"Hey, Moony, Prongs, who dya think that is?"

"Dunno," James said.

"Oh, that's Kassandra. Hermione's friend." The other two started at Remus with 'How the hell do you know that?' looks on their faces. "I actually visit other portraits. Unlike the two of you."

"Ah, good point, mate."

"Hello."

All three jumped in the air, they had turned away from Kassandra while they were talking and were surprised to hear her address them.

"Ah! What do you want?"

"I would like to be allowed in, I must speak with Hermione and Draco. It's urgent."

"Wait a minute," James said. "How'd you know this was their common room?"

"Well, Prongs, if she didn't already, she does now."

"Shut up, Padfoot."

"I already knew. I'm a seer. I saw that this was the entrance to their common room. I also know the password if that would help."

"Well, I dunno."

"Come on, I've seen her around. I also know that she won't tell anyone else about this. Right?"

Kassandra nodded at Remus, "Of course. Chaos."

The Marauders bowed her inside.

Kassandra called out, "Hermione? Draco? Anyone here?" She heard a muffled voice coming from one of the other rooms. She didn't go to investigate, not knowing what she would see.

"Kassandra?" Hermione came out of the room, adjusting her robes. "What are you doing here?"

"I know I'm not supposed to know where here is and everything, but I had to warn you two."

"What? Warn us? About what?"

"I had a vision. It's bad, Draco needs to hear it, too."

"Okay, I'll be right back, make yourself comfortable."

"All right," Kassandra said faintly as Hermione left the room.

"Draco?"

"Yeah?"

Hermione smiled at him. He was lounging back on her pillows, where she had left him. He had his arms folded underneath his head. Three or four of his shirt buttons were undone exposing his smooth, muscular chest. "Kassandra needs to talk to us."

"Now?" Draco looked annoyed that they had been interrupted.

"Yes," she answered walking over to him. She leaned down and kissed him. Just as he started to get into she pulled away, grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him up as she straightened. "Now."

He groaned, "Fine," and rebuttoned his shirt. "All right, but can we make this fast, please?"

"Come on," she said grabbing his hand and pulling him out to the common room.

Kassandra looked around at the two of them as they entered the room. She had been pacing around the room, unable to stay in one place. Hermione's left hand was holding Draco's left and her right hand was grasping behind her back for Draco's right, which was low enough that it looked as though he had been somewhat mischievous.

"Kassandra, are you okay?" Draco stopped grinning as soon as he saw Kassandra; she looked so worried and anxious, that the concern he felt coming through loud and clear. He had grown to quite like Kassandra, dislike of her brother aside.

None of them were in their uniforms but in muggle clothes, most students went around in muggle clothes when they could. Hermione was wearing a black, v-neck, spaghetti strap tank, with an empire cut. Underneath the breast was a thick band of gold that was embroidered with several bright colors. She coupled this with a pair of dark blue jeans and slippers. Her long black hair, which she had recently trimmed to mid-way down her back, instead of to the tops of her jeans, was back in a braid. Draco was in his usual garb of blue jeans and a button down. Today, he was wearing a soft, blue shirt.

Kassandra's long wavy, blonde hair was loose and hung to just below her shoulder blades. She wore a pair of tight white pants and a white a black tube top. The top was divided into four sections. The first portion, white cotton, completely covered her breasts while the second, black mesh, was about an inch wide and completely see-through. The next section, again white, was about two and a half inches followed by another section of black mesh, which came down to an inch below her belly button. She also had her signature black beaded necklace. It was doubled, choker-style, around her neck, then hung down to mid-stomach.

"Ummm, not really, no."

"Oh. Well, would it help if you sat down?"

"Probably not. I should probably just tell you."

"Okay."

Hermione and Draco sat on the couch, Draco on the end and Hermione leaning into him. The two of them watched Kassandra as she started pacing again. Suddenly she stopped, and turned to face them.

"My brother's going to try to do something to split you two up. And then it's going to escalate, into what I don't know. But I saw some bad shit happening. Sides were being drawn and it didn't make much sense. I think, if it goes in the right order, then he'll challenge you to a duel, Draco. I saw you refusing and him pulling out his wand, but I didn't see what happened. The next thing I _did_ see, was the two of them facing off on the grounds. The thing is, it wasn't like it should have been. If it were a duel, then it should have been just the two of you. But it wasn't. You had a lot of people behind you, Draco, even though it looked more like people were behind _both of you_. Then there were some behind Jason. Ron was one of them."

Hermione looked crestfallen at this news and looked down. Kassandra stopped to catch her breath. She had been talking very fast, but luckily, Mione and Draco had been able to catch her words.

"You wanna know the weirdest part?" she asked them. Both nodded, urging her to continue, "Jason had this really weird look about him. Seriously, he didn't look like himself. He was wearing all black, and he never wears black. And you know how he's got really light brown eyes, almost golden? Well, they were so dark that they almost looked black. Everything about him seemed dark. And there were strange people with him. I had never seen them before, well, all but two of them. Ron and Orpheus."

"Wait. You saw Orpheus?"

"Yeah."

Draco looked between the two, confused. "Who's Orpheus?"

This time, it was Hermione who spoke. "Orpheus is this creep that used to stalk me. He would wait outside of Silver every night. Wait for us to arrive, and then for us to leave. He was a wizard, and one that was always talking about how Voldemort had had it right. Somehow he had known that I was muggle-born, or at least thought to be muggle-born." Hermione shivered, "It gives me the creeps just thinking about him."

"Hermione, is she having a vision?"

Hermione looked to Kassandra who had stopped talking and was seemingly looking into space. Her eyes were glazed and her hair was blowing slightly, thought there was no wind. Suddenly she looked confused, her hair stopped blowing and her eyes became focused.

"Wait, what?" She looked skyward and brought her hands up in a frustrated gesture, saying, "Stop with the cryptic vision already! Just tell me what they mean!"

"You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I just saw something about Ron. He was talking to you, and it seemed like it was before the thing on the grounds. I heard snippets of the conversation. He was telling you things about Jason. And Orpheus. He was telling you about strengths and weaknesses. And then it went back to the stand off. I guess that it means that Ron was a spy, or something of the sort. I'm so confused."  
Hermione got up and walked over to her frazzled friend. "It'll be okay. Thanks for telling us. Now we know."

"Draco, I don't get it," Hermione said, ten minutes later. Kassandra had left a few minutes ago and the two of them were trying to sort everything out.

"Neither do I, but we'll work it out eventually. Do her visions always come true?"

"Most of the time, yes. Unless, of course, we change them. Wait, that's it! Just accept his duel the first time he asks, and maybe we can prevent all this."

"I don't know. Why don't we talk this over with some help from others? How bout we go get Ginny and Blaise and go to the Shrieking Shack?"

"Good idea. I know that Harry and Ron will want to know, and then I feel like I have to tell at least Padma and Selene. I mean, I know that I shouldn't tell everyone, but I feel like I _have to_ tell them. I can't really explain it."

"Shh, calm down," Draco went over to where she had stood and started pacing. He put his arms around her and felt her relax slightly into his arms. He started making comforting circles on her back. "Okay, we'll get them, then we'll go and we'll talk about it. Okay?"

"Yeah, thanks."

**A/N:** I'm starting to confuse myself, hehe. Not really. Questions anyone? Review, and ideas are always welcome. Toodles!


	25. Night Talk

**A/N:** I'd tell you what's going to happen in the chapter, but I'm not sure yet myself, so we'll all just have to wait and find out, now won't we?

**Cammy77:** I'm sorry I'm confusing you, but I'm confusing myself too, if that helps at all, or possibly worry you. I hope you like the chapter!

**Robin77:** I wanted to get Ron in here some cuz he's not going to be in much more, Shh! You didn't hear it from me!

**Silverwolf130492:** Damn it! You always ruin it, well, just for the people that read the reviews and remember what they all say and then read the responses. But the others who don't, then I guess its fine for them. Hehehe. Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy the chapter! Even though you already guessed part of it. Phhhpt!

**Danni:** Thankys for the review and the compliment! Enjoy!

**Steelo:** Not the perfect guy for you! The perfect for ME! Muahahahaha!

**Natty123:** I'm glad you're back, I missed you! I was wondering where you were, and I'm glad you like it, yay! Enjoy the new chappy.

**Tinka Shimmer Belle:** Thanks for the cookie, it was yummy! Hehe! I hope you like the chapter.

**Nosie:** I'm glad you like the mythology, but sorry no on the Jason thing. He's nothing special, yet, I mean, at all.

**WannaBArtist:** I'm sad you're going to miss it , I'll try to get lots up quickly.

**Gothhottie:** No worries, I'll resolve it. And I've been thinking about the thing with Jason, and don't worry, it had occurred to me before. I updated!

**Maybaby525:** I'm glad you like it, and that another person has read Hawksong! She's an amazing writer. I love her style. But hey, not about her here. I was just looking for some fun names and I remembered that book….so….that's how they got worked into my story. Hope you like this chapter!

**Smiles28:** I'm glad you like it, but none of them are Deatheaters. Sorry. Well, at least not yet that I know of. Hehe.

**Previously**

"Shh, calm down," Draco went over to where she had stood and started pacing. He put his arms around her and felt her relax slightly into his arms. He started making comforting circles on her back. "Okay, we'll get them, then we'll go and we'll talk about it. Okay?"

"Yeah, thanks."

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

**Night Talk**

"Okay, so how 'bout we just stick with Blaise and Ginny?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Hermione said, "I started thinking, and I'd rather tell them first and think about it for a little bit and then tell some of the others."

"I agree. Do you want Kassandra to come though? To help us explain?"

"No. I want to explain it myself. Besides, I remembered it perfectly. It won't be a problem."

They made their way to the Slytherin common room first. They said their password and entered the common room. Blaise was sprawled across one of the couches reading.

"Blaise! What in the bleeding hell do you think you're doing?"

"Uh," he said, looking up and grinning when he saw Draco, "reading."

"Reading?" Draco had a look of horror, disgust, shock and amusement on his face.

"Yeah, you'll have to blame my cousin, here," he gestured to Hermione. "You see, it's all her fault. She actually got me interested in muggle novels. Granted, most of the ones she owns are romance novels, I steer clear of those. But everyone once in a while I'll find one that looks promising."  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, you're coming with us, whether you like it or not."

"Okay. Sure, but, um, where are we going?"

"You'll see," Draco said cryptically.

The three walked out of the common room and up the many flights of stairs and up to the Gryffindor common room. When they reached it the portrait was empty.

"Oh, just great," Hermione said, groaning, "the Fat Lady's gone on one of her visits, she could be gone for hours."

"Umm," Blaise said, "I can get her out here."

"Really?" Draco asked, curious. "How?"

"Oh, you know, the mirrors."

"Right, forgot about them," Draco nodded.

Hermione looked between the two of them, "Huh?"

"Later," Blaise said. He turned and took a small mirror out of the pocket of his jeans and said, "Ginny."

Moments later, after a whispered conversation between Blaise and Ginny through the mirrors, Ginny arrived, coming out of the common room. When she saw them she turned right back around without so much as a word. She came out a few seconds later with her cloak on.

"So, where to?"

"Well," Hermione said, "we were going to go to the shack, but I'd rather just stay in the castle tonight. So we're going to go up to the Astronomy tower. Is that okay with you guys?"

"Yeah."

"Sure."

The four climbed to the top of the tower. When they reached the top, Draco whipped out his wand and conjured two blankets and a small bluebell fire. Each couple sat on a blanket and were grateful for the warmth the fire gave off on the cold December night. Hermione and Draco relayed what Kassandra had told them to Blaise and Ginny. When they were done, both looked just as confused as they felt.

"So, wait, Ron is going to what?"

"I don't know. It sounded almost like he was spying on Jason for me or something."

"And who is this Orpheus?"

"Well," Ginny took over to explain to Blaise. "When Mione and I went to Silver, a lot of times there was this guy sitting outside of the club, and he was waiting for us. He would wait for us to get there and then for us to leave. He would always leer at Mione and when we first met him, before we knew his name or anything about him, he asked Mione if she was muggle born. And when she said she was-"

"He said, 'I thought so. You look like you belong in the mud.'" Hermione had cut Ginny off and continued in disgust. "He would go on and on, whenever we saw him, about how Voldemort had been right and that mudbloods shouldn't be allowed to live." She shivered and Draco tightened his arms around her. "Anyways, he then started stalking me, and one night I told Sirius and he did something. I don't know what, but I haven't seen Orpheus since then."

"Why would Ron be hanging out with a guy like that in the first place?"

"I don't know. All I know is that I hope this doesn't come true. We'll know if Jason challenges Draco. From her vision, it will be tomorrow."

"How do you know? She didn't tell us that."

Hermione had an 'oops' look on her face, "Well, she didn't tell you that. She told me though. And I wasn't supposed to let that slip."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "And why was I not allowed to know this?"

"Because we didn't want you to try to go looking for him or do something that would act as a catalyst for this to happen. So try not to pick a fight with him or anything. Okay? Please?"

"I get it, but you know you could have told me. I'm not going to do anything rash. Maybe I did do something and Kassandra's vision just didn't see it. Now I know not to. Right?"

"I guess."

"Okay, you guys, worrying over this isn't going to help anything," Blaise the voice of reason. "Why don't we go to bed, prepare for tomorrow, and work it out if he actually challenges Draco?"

"Blaise," Hermione said grinning, "I like the way you think. Let's do that. And if Kassandra's vision is right, Jason will challenge Draco by lunch tomorrow."

OoOoOoO

"Did you get any sleep last night?"

"No. You?"

"Surprisingly, yes. You shouldn't worry so much, I'll just avoid him all day. Then he can't challenge me. Not if he can't find me. I'll just be sick today."

"Okay, but I don't know if that will work."

"We'll see. But promise me something?"

"What?"

"Will you please quit worrying? If it has to happen it will no matter how much you worry, and if it doesn't that it won't."

"Okay," she said smiling. "I better go down to breakfast and inform everyone that you might not be around today."

OoOoOoO

"Sirius Black."

Moments later Draco appeared at the living quarters of Sirius Black, which were located above Onyx.

"Who's there?"

"Sirius? It's me, Draco."

"Ah, how are you?" Sirius came out of the next room looking as though he had just woken up.

"Been better. I need a favor."

"What is it? I'll do whatever I can."

"Well, you remember that note that I sent you last night about Kassandra's vision?"

"Yes."

"Well, something that they neglected to tell me was that was supposed to happen today."

"Oh. What can I do?"

"Is there any way that you could get him away, like even transferred to another school?"

"I don't, actually, yes, I can. Durmstrang okay?"

"Perfect. Mind if I ask how you're going to do it?"

"Oh, I have my ways."

**A/N:** I'm already getting sick of where this is going, so I'm going to end it right now. Or next chapter anyway. Oh well. Review!


	26. The Mayhem Begins

**A/N:** OVER 200 REVIEWS! I love you all! Okay, since no one, including myself, really likes Jason, this is hopefully going to be his last chapter! Everyone cheer! Enjoy!

**Natty123:** No, Draco isn't going to Durmstrang, but someone is.

**Robin777:** Thank you very much.

**Steelo:** What are you on about? He is SO mine, and nothing you say is going to change that fact, unless you want to preserve Gerard Butler for forever and give him to me. In that case you could have him. But other than that, no way. In case your wondering why Gerard Butler, have you seen Phantom of the Opera? The movie? Watch that, he's the phantom, and you won't be asking anymore. He just exudes sensuality. He's amazing. Enjoy the chapter!

**Secretspells311:** I updated, sorry it took so long.

**Cammy777:** Thanks for the awesome review! Hope you like the chapter, and even if you're still confused by the end of it, don't worry, it won't pop back up in the story anywhere else. Enjoy!

**Previously**

"Well, you remember that note that I sent you last night about Kassandra's vision?"

"Yes."

"Well, something that they neglected to tell me was that was supposed to happen today."

"Oh. What can I do?"

"Is there any way that you could get him away, like even transferred to another school?"

"I don't, actually, yes, I can. Durmstrang okay?"

"Perfect. Mind if I ask how you're going to do it?"

"Oh, I have my ways."

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

**The Mayhem Begins**

"Draco? What are you doing here? I thought Hermione said that you were going to stay in the common room today."

"Well, I was, but I got someone to help with that little problem of Jason."  
Blaise was intrigued, "Really? Who? How?"

Draco just ginned.

o

"Where am I?"

"You are at Durmstrang Institute. We received a recommendation that you would be better off here than at Hogwarts. We already spoke to your parents, and they also believe that you will do well here."

"Wait a minute. Slow down. What?"

"You've transferred from Hogwarts to Durmstrang. Now, if you'd follow me, I'll show you to the Headmaster's study."

Jason dumbly followed the woman through the corridors.

o

"Draco?"

"Yeah?" He turned to look at who had called his name. "Kassandra? What is it?"

Kassandra looked nervous. "Um, well, can I speak to you a moment?'

"Sure," he led her to a quiet corner of the entrance hall. "What's up?"

"Did you do something to Jason so that my vision wouldn't come true?"

"What?"

"I had a vision of Jason at Durmstrang, in a couple months. He was with a girl, telling her how happy he was there and that he was glad that he hadn't done anything stupid "like challenging this guy from my old school over a girl." So tell me. Did you do something to get him into Durmstrang?"

"Well, it was my idea. But Sirius is the one who managed it."

Kassandra breathed a sigh of relief and hugged him tightly, "Thank God."

Draco pulled back and looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean, 'Thank God?'"

"I went and told Dumbledore about my visions, and the people in them. He extracted the thoughts and put them into his pensive and was able to watch them. He ID'd many of them as Death Eaters."

"Are you serious?"

"Quite. So, thank you. Have you told Hermione yet?"

"Um, well, not exactly, no. Do you think I should?"

"Yes." Draco turned to leave but was stopped by Kassandra calling his name, "Oh, and Draco, I'm going to join him in a few days. Tell her that."

o

Draco walked all around the school, searching for Hermione, but couldn't find her anywhere. He finally gave up and went back to the common room. When he reached the portrait, James, Remus and Sirius were all grinning at him.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," James said. He started swinging his hands in front of him and looked like he was trying, and failing, to keep a straight face.

"What!"

"I think we should show him pity, fellas," Sirius said gravely.

"I agree with Padfoot," Remus added.

"Oh alright, majority wins. You are in some deep shit."

"Yeah," Sirius interrupted James, "I would beware of the storm that is Hermione Granger."

"Why?"

"She came looking for you. And you weren't here."

"We told her you went out."

"And now she's incredibly pissed off."

They finished and all three grinned at him again. Draco groaned, "Great. Thanks for the warning."

"That's what we're here for."

Draco stepped into the common room cautiously. He looked around the room but didn't see any sign of Hermione. He sighed in relief. He walked over to his room and went to his bed to flop. He would have made it too, had he not suddenly sunk waist deep into water. He looked down to find himself on the edge of a small bog that had somehow come to be in the middle of his room.

"What the f-!"

"Looks like you're in deep," Hermione said, emerging from the shadows, doing a great job imitating a Malfoy smirk.

"How did this happen?"

"Remember our fifth year, the one Fred and George Weasley pulled?"

"You got this when we went to Diagon Alley, didn't you?"

"Yep, and I hadn't quite decided how to use it yet. But thanks to you, I got to test it out."

"Hermione, will you help me get out of this?"

"Not yet. I have questions and I want answers." Draco sighed but nodded for her to continue. "What were you doing out of our dorms?"

"Dealing with the problem Jason presented."

"How so?"

"By getting him into Durmstrang. I talked to Kassandra and she said that there will no longer be anything to worry about. Oh, and she's going to go there, too."

Hermione sighed and took out her wand. She muttered a short incantation and the bog disappeared. Pocketing her wand, she walked out of the room, rubbing her temples. Draco followed her and stood in her doorway, and watched her flop on her bed. He sat on the end of her bed, took her shoes and socks off, and started to massage her feet.

"Oooh, that feels _way_ to good."

Draco grinned mischievously and wiggled his fingers at the arch of her foot. She kicked him.

"None of that now, massage now, play later. Besides, you're working on getting out of the doghouse."  
"The doghouse?"

"Trouble. It's a muggle expression."

"Ah. Well, can I do this?" he asked and kissed the same place he had previously tickled.

o

A few days later found Hermione running flat out from the heads common room.

"HERMIONE!"

She turned to look behind her and saw Draco and Blaise sprinting towards her. She burst out laughing at the sight and snapped a couple pictures with the small camera she had with her. Not because of the way they were running, but because they were covered in seaweed and fish tails were visible sticking out of their robes. She turned the corner and Hermione threw her invisibility cloak over herself. Moments later, the two boys came hurtling around the corner and down the short corridor.

o

"Look at this letter from Hermione, George."

A day later found the Weasley twins reading an amusing letter from their little sister (Hermione had been unofficially adopted into the Weasley family). It detailed, and contained a couple pictures, the prank she had pulled on Blaise and Draco. The first couple pictures were of her up. She used one of the portable oceans that Hermione had purchased when in Diagon Alley. It also showed Mione pouring some extra fish into the ocean. There was a picture of Hermione switching Draco's and Blaise's wands with a few of the twins' early fake wands. The last couple pictures were of Blaise and Draco running after her trying to stop her, and their wands turning into a mouse and a sardine.

The two laughed uproariously at the pictures and Hermione's play-by-play. She had also included plans for her next prank, in which Draco, Blaise and Ginny were to help.

o

"Okay, you guys ready?" Hermione asked the other three. They all nodded excitedly. It was nighttime in the castle and four animals roamed the corridors. A panther with glinting eyes rounded the corner to the entrance hall first, followed by a phoenix. Once they made it they transformed into dark haired, sapphire eyed, teenagers. They each brought out a silvery cloak and threw it around their shoulders. Then they cast a spell, which enabled them to see each other.

"Okay, this one's first," Hermione said, pulling something out of her cloak.

o

The next morning students were milling around the entrance hall in confusion. Hermione waded through the crowd, trying to make her way to the front with exclamations of, "Excuse me!", "Let me through," and "I'm Head Girl!" All the while praying that it turned out just as well in the daylight as it had in the night.

She reached the banks of the mighty river that now ran through the entrance hall and gasped. The students around her assumed that she was gasping in shock, awe and horror. She was really gasping in amazement and joy. It was perfect. In front of her lay a wide river with grassy banks and several rapids. It started at the doors to the castle and wound through the hall and going right between the students and the Great Hall.

There was a small dock to which four boats were tied. There was a note on the first boat that Hermione read, trying hard not to laugh.

"Hermione?"

"What's going on?"

"What is this?"

Her partners in crime came up to her, their acting just as believable as hers had been. When they were sure than no one could see their faces, all three grinned excitedly at her.

"Apparently, someone wishes for us to give all the students a 'ride to work'. And when I say us, I mean the four of us. They list our names specifically. Look at the names on the boats." She pointed to each of the boats on which there was a named carved into the side. Each one had the name of one of the four friends. "According to this person, we're to get nothing in return, but they will." She pointed to the corner of the dock where an object had just appeared. The students all gasped and stared. Then they all clambered to be the first ones on the boats.

**A/A:** This time it stands for "**Author's Apologies**". I am SO SORRY that it took so long to get this out. Major writer's block. I couldn't think of a thing. No more Jason! Yay! And Tinka Shimmer Belle (and everyone else), here's your riddle, but it isn't very hard, what just appeared? Once again, so sorry that it took so damn long. Review! IDEAS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME!

Kat


	27. Preparations

**A/N:** I am so sorry the last one took me so long to get out. It's just that school was ending and I had exams, and getting my first car and the beginning of summer, and so many movies coming out and lots and lots of writers block made it really hard to write. So I'm hoping that these coming chapters get out much sooner.

**Don't Let Me Get Me:** Sorry, neither one. But I'm sure you'll get over your disappointment. Enjoy the chapter!

**Sirusblackshottie:** Not a blast ended skrewt, I hadn't even thought of it. That would be amusing though. Enjoy!

**Tinka Shimmer Belle:** Hmmmm, not quite. I'm so sorry for making you think that I had abandoned the story! Never! Tasty cookie! Thankys. Enjoy the chappie!

**Steelo:** If you want to do that I am all for it. Besides, I'd take the older, experienced man any day. (Insert lusty/leering grin here). Hehehehehe. Besides, he could serenade me, and we could rewrite the Phantom of the Opera. :-D So your marvelous plan is perfect. And if you would like to add Christian Bale into the mix, I would have no complaints. (Insert another lusty/leering grin here) I objectify men shamelessly, don't I? I hope you like the chapter!

**Natty123:** Well the reason that I glossed over several days is because nothing really happened and I was trying to get the timeline to where I want it. Sorry, I'll try not to do that too much. I'll just open up a can of whoop ass on you if you go kong foey on my ass. Enjoy the chapter!

**Danni:** Thank you, bows thank you bows to other side of audience! I hope this is out soon enough for you! Enjoy!

**Michelle Felton:** Hope you enjoy!

**The Gryffindor Drummer:** I'm glad you liked it, and I did a happy dance when I got rid of Jason as well. Hehehe. Enjoy!

**Previously**

"Apparently, someone wishes for us to give all the students a 'ride to work'. And when I say us, I mean the four of us. They list our names specifically. Look at the names on the boats." She pointed to each of the boats on which there was a named carved into the side. Each one had the name of one of the four friends. "According to this person, we're to get nothing in return, but they will." She pointed to the corner of the dock where an object had just appeared. The students all gasped and stared. Then they all clambered to be the first ones on the boats.

**Chapter Twenty-Seven**

**Preparations**

_Attention:_

_All students must attend breakfast for an important announcement._

_There is a ward placed on the entrance of the dock. Each student_

_Who passes the entrance must drop one knut in the box. Have a nice _

_Day._

_Sincerely,_

_Your newest mischief makers._

While all the students were trying to board the boats, there were murmurs of outrage at how they had never been charged for anything before. Aella was the first to step onto the dock and boarded Hermione's boat, shortly followed by Ron. Selene, Padma and Harry got on shortly after. Hermione noted that Harry's arm was around Padma and made a mental note to ask about it later.

"Hey, Mione. How you doin' this morning?"

"Well, to be perfectly honest, Harry, I was better before I got down here."

He laughed, "I bet. I wonder how someone got this here."  
"Like you don't know."

"True. But what student could have not been seen? I mean, it had to be during someone's rounds or sometime in the early morning."

"Or it could have been you," Hermione said like she had just realized something.

Harry looked at her incredulously. "How do you figure that?"

"Oh come on, Harry," she looked at the other occupants of the boat. Ron and Aella were talking together and so were Selene and Padma. No one was paying any attention to their conversation. "Your invisibility cloak. It would have been so easy."

"Yeah, granted it would have been. If I had done it."

Hermione shrugged. "Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see if anything turns up. Filch should have fun with this."

o 

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I have a special announcement. As we are nearing the Yuletide holidays, I would like to inform you that the Head Boy and Girl will be accepting ideas for a holiday event, today only. If you have an idea, just hunt one down. It shouldn't be too hard as I believe they are going to be transporting you to the other side of the entrance hall," the twinkle that was associated with Dumbledore's eye was present as usual and he tried to hold back a grin…unsuccessfully. "Please remember to keep suggestions appropriate. Thank you." And with that he sat back down amid buzzing around the room.

o 

When Draco and Hermione had finished eating, they made their way back to the boats. Both of theirs were already filled, mostly with girls. There were also two lines leading from each of their boats.

"Hermione, you should make it a Masquerade."

"Hey! I was gonna say that!"

"You should let people wear whatever they want, Draco."

"Yeah, come on. Do we have to have a fancy event all the time?"

"Do us guys a favor, Draco."

"Would you guys shut it? We'll hear all ideas. No, actually, we won't. You have an idea? Write it down and give it to us. Then we'll pick. Sound right, Hermione."

"Couldn't have said it better myself. Well, I'm sure I could have put it a little more eloquently, but you have your own style."

o 

"Draco, I'm gonna need another bag just for all these suggestions," Hermione groaned.

Draco grunted in response and shook his bag out onto the floor in front of the fire in their common room. They had left dinner early so as not to have to deal with the swarm of students who had yet to stuff pieces of papers in their bags, hands or robes.

Hours later found them in the same place, surrounded by plates and half empty, or half full, glasses. There were piles of parchment all over the place. Many ideas had been suggested by several people.

"Draco. I think we're done."

"Yeah, its about time."

"Here are my favorites," she said, moving seven piles in front of Draco.

He read through them then moved some to her, "And these are mine."

"Draco, there are twelve piles here."

"You've got to be kidding. That's perfect. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"If you're thinking about a 12 Days of Christmas thing, then yes."

"Yup. How 'bout we get them into some semblance of a schedule?"

"Sounds good."

They worked for another solid hour deliberating the time when each event would take place. When they were done, Draco looked over the line-up and asked, "Which are your two least favorite?"

"Probably the Dueling and Quidditch. Don't get me wrong, I love them both, especially Quidditch. But out of all of them, those are the two I'm least looking forward to."

"Me too. I'm glad you said that."

"Why?"

"Well because of this," he said, handing her a thick parchment envelope.

The envelope itself was blank and Hermione opened it with a curious glance at Draco. She pulled out a thick piece of parchment, more of a card. It was about 3"x4" and had a smaller card in the middle. The outer part of the larger card was decorated with a beautiful starry design. The card read:

_Hermione Danica Zabini:_

_You are cordially invited_

To the annual 

_Malfoy Family Masquerade_

Hermione looked up at him, to find him smiling. "Actually, I was hoping you would be my date, Miss Zabini."

"I'm afraid that that will be impossible."

Draco seemed taken aback. "Why?"

"Because you don't go to a Masquerade with a date, Mr. Malfoy You find one there."

"Of course, Miss Zabini. How silly of me," he said, grinning at her.

"Question though."

"Yes?"

"What does this have to do with the events?"

"Well, you'll be at Malfoy Manor for two days and it would be those two days. That's why."

Hermione shook her head at him and stretched, yawning.

"Tired?"

"No," she said, very sarcastically. "I'm bursting with energy, can't you tell? I mean I'm practically running circles around you."

"Do you ever think that you take sarcasm a little too far?"

"Never."

"Okay, well in that case, how bout we call it a night?"

"Brilliant. Gimme a hand here, will ya?"

o 

The next day, December first, Dumbledore rose again and addressed the school. "As I mentioned yesterday, we will be having a manner of celebration determined by our Heads for this Yuletide season. They have already decided what it will be. Here is Hermione Zabini to tell you about it."

Hermione stood up and went into a small speech, "Good morning. Yesterday, Draco and myself received hundreds of ideas for events that we could have for this Yuletide. We went through them all and, as there were many redundancies, we were able to narrow the ideas down into twelve groups. We decided that we will have a "Twelve Days of Christmas Celebration" beginning in exactly two weeks. It will include things such as a club night, movie night, different parties, dueling, Quidditch and a Masquerade ball. There will be no classes from that day until the end of the holidays. The days will be for yourselves, and the evening's activities will be optional, with the exception of the opening feast and the Masquerade on the last night. There will be a list of each day's event in the common room of each house. Thank you."

Hermione sat down to applause and talk resumed as normal, but it was all about the celebration.

"Two weeks?"

"I wonder what the other events are going to be."

"I hope it will be fun."

"I'm glad that we aren't forced to go to everything."

"Let's go see the others."

Many students, well girls, got up and left the hall, presumably heading back to their common rooms to see what the other events were.

o 

"So, Mione, what are you going to wear for the club night?"

"Gin, that's still a week away. I haven't decided yet. And I think I'm going to go shopping tomorrow. And you're coming too. And I won't take no for an answer. I don't care if you want new clothes or not. It's my cumulative 7 year Christmas gift for you."

"I thought the broom covered that?"

"Nope, just birthdays," Hermione smirked.

o 

"Where are you ladies off to on this fine morning?"

"Well, Harry, if you must know. Miss Ginny and I are going to go shopping for the Celebration events. Would you like to join us. We could use a male's opinion, I'm sure."

"Oh, alright. It's not like I've got anything else to do."

The two girls split apart and each took one of Harry's arms and led him out of the entrance hall and down the corridors until they reached the one-eyed witch. _"Dissendium"_

"Hey! How did you know that? I've never taken you to this passage before."

"Harry, Harry, Harry," Hermione said, shaking her head pityingly. "You really ought to keep a closer eye on your personal effects. It wasn't hard to duplicate. But you see, mine is better. It's updated. " She smirked as she went into the passageway.

"Someday I'm going to figure out how you did it."

"I doubt it, Harry. If she doesn't want you to find something out, you won't. Take her heritage for example."

Ginny disappeared down the passage and after staring after them for a moment, Harry followed.

"So where should we go first?"

"How bout we go see Sirius?"

"Hermione, what are you planning?"

"Shopping," she said, innocently. "Didn't I tell you?"

"Come clean."

"You'll find out soon enough," she said, dragging them to the club.

o 

"Much better. Now we can do some real shopping."

"I thought we were supposed to be shopping in Hogsmeade, Mione."

"When did I say that?"

"Last night when you said you were going shopping."

"Nope, I never said in Hogsmeade, now did I?"

"Uh-well-no," Ginny said, defeated.

"You're clever, Mione. And you're devious. I'm going to have to watch out for you," Harry said, grinning at her.

"Oh, let's go in already," she said and pulled the two into the mall.

o 

"Hey, Gin, what do you think about this for Karaoke night?"

"It is so not fair that you look so bloody amazing in corset tops. Harry, is that fair to you? Harry? Well, I think he thinks you look good."

Harry was staring at Hermione open mouthed. She was wearing tight black pants with a tuxedo stripe down the sides coupled with a black satin corset. The corset had thin bra straps and scant lace trim around the top. The corset looked amazing on her. It showed off her cleavage while still managing to leave some to the imagination and it wasn't too tight, but didn't look baggy either. Hermione laughed and looked at Ginny's outfit.

"Not to shabby, Ginny. What do you think? Do you like it?"

"Are ya kiddin'? I love it!"

Ginny had a dress on. It was black with an underlying layer of emerald green and drew attention to her eyes. The dress had one strap that attached to the left side of the dress and went across her chest and over her right shoulder. There were slits up the side of the dress from the hem, knee length, to mid-thigh.

"What do you think, Harry?"

"Uh, you both look amazing."

They grinned at him and went back into their dressing rooms.

o 

"I can't believe I let you two do this to me," Harry said, hours later, as they left the mall. All three were laden down with bags. "I can't believe I actually spent money in a muggle mall to buy clothes. I've never had to do that before."

Both girls looked at him like he was crazy, "Are you joking?"

"No, I've never had to buy my own clothes. Your mum takes care of me like I was her own. And before that I just got Dudley's old clothes."

"You have been deprived. He had never been shopping, Ginny. I almost felt bad that we rushed."

"No worries, you two. I wouldn't have been able to last a whole lot longer anyhow. I must say though, it wasn't as bad as guys always make it out to be."

As he said this, both girls looked at each other and grinned identical evil smiles, smiles that could have rivaled Fred and George Weasley.

**A/N:** Well, this chapter was a much faster update! Yay for me! Just to let you know, it may very well be almost two to three weeks before you hear from me again, but don't worry, I'm not dropping the story or anything. I'm going to be gone from this Saturday to next and I have to get ready this week and then unpack next week then get ready to go on another trip. So it may be awhile, but I'll do my best!


	28. So Much To Do, So Little Time

**A/N:** Here's the next chapter. Hope you like.

**Previously**

"No worries, you two. I wouldn't have been able to last a whole lot longer anyhow. I must say though, it wasn't as bad as guys always make it out to be."

As he said this, both girls looked at each other and grinned identical evil smiles, smiles that could have rivaled Fred and George Weasley.

**Chapter Twenty-Eight**

**So Much To Do, So Little Time**

The kick-off feast the night before had been like any other holiday feast. Nothing special. But all the students were looking forward to tonight's theme of "club" night.

"So which outfit are you wearing tonight, Ginny?"

"You're just going to have to wait and see, Blaise. I mean come on. You've only been asking to see the clothes we bought every other day."

"Well, I keep hoping that you will let your guard down and I can catch you unawares and figure out what you're wearing."

"You'll see later, now shoo," she said, shoving him out of the portrait hole. You can come back in two hours."

Ginny walked through the common room to Hermione's room where Ginny's clothes were laid out. She still didn't know what Hermione was going to wear. She looked around the room, but didn't see Mione anywhere. Then she heard a yelp of joy coming from the bathroom.

"What on earth are you doing?"

Hermione turned around and Ginny could see that Hermione had magically layered red highlights into her hair within seconds. "You like?"

"Very much," Ginny answered her friend. "By the way, what _are_ you wearing tonight?"

"Come see," she said, grinning and pulling Ginny out of the bathroom and back into her room. She pulled something out of the closet and put it on her bed.

"Draco's gonna have a heart attack and Blaise is going to try and make you change."

Hermione laughed, "Yeah, but he knows that I won't. He knows just as well as you do how stubborn I am. Shall we get changed now?"

"You bet."

o 

"You ready to go, Gin?'

"Yep, you? Never mind, I can see that."

Hermione grinned at her and flounced to the door. She held it open for Ginny who stepped out and into Blaise.

"It's about time, it's about to start. You two take forever."

"Blaise, mate, they're girls. What did you expect?"

"Yeah, I know. By the way, Ginny, you look fabulous."

"Thanks," she said, blushing. She was wearing the black dress with a black velvet cloak. The cloak had a wide front opening allowing the guys to see how she was dressed.

"I have to agree there," Draco said.

Hermione made a mock pout, "What about me?"

"Well," Draco said, looking her up and down. "I can tell right now that you look bloody amazing. But I would prefer to make that judgment until I can see just how magnificent you look."

"Fine," she harrumphed playfully.

"Can we go, now," Blaise asked.

"Yup, let's go," Hermione said.

Blaise took Ginny's hand and Draco put an arm around Hermione's waist, surreptitiously trying to feel what she was wearing. Hermione knew what he was doing and slipped out of his arm and took his hand in hers, smirking at him.

o 

"Holy shit, Draco. You are one lucky man."

He wasn't sure where the comment had come from but he knew it was because of something Hermione had done. He turned and looked, and didn't care that his mouth was hanging open.

Hermione had finally taken her knee-length black leather jacket off to reveal what she was wearing. She wore ruby red leather pants that had criss-crossing elastic cords up the side seams. Her top was also leather and ruby red. It was another corset top. The front middle section was about four inches wide at the top and narrowed as it got further down her body. This section had the elastic cords across it as the pants did. On either side of this were two-inch wide strips of leather flanked by sections of the cords over seams. The back looked the same as the front so that there were four sections with elastic cords and four strips of plain leather. As with any corset, it was designed to draw attention to the bust, which it did magnificently.

Draco finally registered that he was supposed to say something, "Yes, yes I am." He walked over to Hermione, "Would you like to dance?"

o 

December 15 

_Well, I realize that it's been a few days since I've written, but I'm writing now. Tonight was the "Club" night of our Christmas Celebration. I wore a pair of red leather pants and a red leather corset that I had designed based off an episode of my favorite muggle TV show, Alias. Apparently I looked quite amazing. That is, if Draco's and almost every other guy's reaction was anything to go by._

_Draco and I danced together all night. There were a couple times, when we had stopped to get a drink, that a guy would try to come and get a dance with me, but Draco would glare at him and put his arm around me. The only guys he would let me dance with were Harry and Blaise. Anyone else, not a chance._

_Throughout the night, Draco danced off and on fairly consistently. We'd dance for a while, then get really hot and stop for a drink. And then we'd go and dance some more. Ginny commented that there were times when she noticed that there were couples who were trying to dance like us. She also said that had any of the teachers been able to, they would have had to step in to maintain some semblance of decency. It was very sensual, the way we were dancing. _

_Draco felt so good when he was pressed up against me, and I almost regret that fact that we can't go as a couple to the Masquerade for the Celebration or his family one. Maybe I could cast a spell so that I could identify him. Or maybe I'll just be able to tell who he is. I don't know. I can't wait to meet Narcissa. _

_I wrote to Molly the other day and she told me that they were friends in school, with my mother. She said it had been a surprise to everyone when she had married Lucius, because she had never been one to care about blood and that she was like a combination of the two of them._

_I'm so tired, and tomorrow is another big day. Tomorrow is the Karaoke night and should be fairly embarrassing for some and excruciating for the rest of us. I hope people actually know if they can sing or not and plan accordingly. _

_Hermione Danica Zabini_

**A/N:** I know its super short but I wanted to update before I left. I will be gone a week and I know it will be terrible for you all but I think you can make it through this. Cya in a week!

Kat


	29. Anything But That!

**A/N:** Alrighty, I'm back now, have been for a few days, but I've been busy dropping all the most obvious signs that I like a guy and he doesn't seem to be getting it. But hey! Schwhatever. Oh and there are a lot of reviews that need to be answered so…

**Cammy77:** I'm glad you're not confused! And I wouldn't mind going shopping with Harry either.

**Secretspells311:** Glad you like!

**Goddessofnight419:** Thank you!

**DoNtLetMeGetMe:** I love being able to use my favorite tv outfits for this story!

**Steelo:** I havent' gotten around to reading your story yet, but I will! I promise, everything's been crazy busy and will be for a few more days. I'm glad you liked the outfit! And on the topic of what Draco was wearing. I have no idea. I just think of him in a pair of black jeans.

**D-daygirl:** I hope I remembered to email you! And I if I didn't, then I hope you still were able to read this but as I said to Steelo, it's crazy busy around here right now, so sorry if I forgot to.

**Sirusblackshottie:** Glad you liked it. Hope this was soon enough for ya.

**Tinka Shimmer Belle:** yay! Another cookie!

**Shock:** I'm glad you like the story.

**The Gryffindor Drummer:** So glad you enjoyed both chapters and that you didn't think the last one was too short.

**Jackalope hunter:** I haven't quite decided what the money is going to be used for yet. Maybe to fix up the shack a little more? Any ideas are welcome. And I felt so bad for poor Harry having been deprived of shopping. Oh the wizardity! And thanks for the 'have fun' I did! One question about your pen name: Does it have anything to do with a movie?

**UnderCoverWitch:** I think I sent the pictures to you, did I? Well, I'll resend them just to be sure! Thanks for reading.

**Natty123:** Thank you! My story rox! I'm so proud! tear

**Danni:** Thankys and I will!

**XXWitchXx:** Thanks for the nice words!

**Spiggi:** I thought it was fun for Blaise too!

**Alexandra:** Thanks for the ideas for the tattoos! If I havent' sent you the pictures yet, I will. Like I've said, its crazy busy around here. I'm so glad that you like it!

**WannaBArtist:** I'm glad I got to hear from ya again. I hope you get to read again before you leave.

**Previously**

_I can't wait to meet Narcissa. I wrote to Molly the other day and she told me that they were friends in school, with my mother. She said it had been a surprise to everyone when she had married Lucius, because she had never been one to care about blood and that she was like a combination of the two of them._

_I'm so tired, and tomorrow is another big day. Tomorrow is the Karaoke night and should be fairly embarrassing for some and excruciating for the rest of us. I hope people actually know if they can sing or not and plan accordingly. _

_Hermione Danica Zabini_

**Chapter Twenty-Nine**

**Anything But That!**

Hermione and Ginny had planned their entrance for two weeks. They had planned and practiced and were confident that it would be perfect. Somehow they had managed to keep it secret from most of their friends and from the respective boys. They were both nervous, but were also confident as they got ready. Finished, they looked at themselves in the mirror.

Hermione's black hair had been trimmed a few inches so that it came down to mid-back and had blue streaks layered into it, which accentuated the blue of her eyes. She had smoky eye make-up, which also drew attention to her eyes. She wore slightly tinted lip gloss, which gave her lips a slightly darker look. As with her top the night before, the corset performed its job perfectly and showed off Hermione's cleavage. The pants hugged her figure without being too tight. The snug pants and the high heels drew attention to her long legs.

Ginny's shiny red hair had been pulled back a little bit on each side. She wore a small amount of make-up including dark gold eye shadow and a colorless lip gloss. As with Hermione, Ginny's corset did it's job in drawing attention to her chest. Her pants were also snug and emphasized the length of her legs.

They looked down on the crowd from their seats and watched as the lights grew low and the silver confetti began to fall from around them. Hermione began to sing.

_The French are glad to die for love,_

Everyone in the hall looked up and gaped at the two women who were sitting on swings and being slowly lowered to the ground.

_They delight in fighting duels,_

Hermione could see Draco. It was the second time in two days that she had made his mouth drop.

But I prefer a man who lives And gives expensive… 

_Jewels._

Ginny had joined her, both whispering the last word. They went into mirror images of a similar dance to the one from the muggle film. There were a few fellow students who had been willing to assist them in their feat and were doing so throughout the dance to make it even more like the film's dance.

A kiss on the hand may be   
Quite continental 

_But diamonds are a girl's best friend_

_A kiss may be grand _

_But it won't pay the rental on your humble flat_

_Or help you feed your own pussycat_

Men grow cold as girls grow old 

_And we all loose our charms in the end._

_But square cut or pear shape_

_These rocks don't loose their shape_

_Diamonds are a girl's best friend_

_Tiffany's!_

_Cartier!_

_Cuz we are living in a material world_

_And I am a material girl_

_Come and get us boys_

_Black Star!_

_Ross Cole!_

_Talk to us Harry Zeidler! Tell us all about it!_

_There may come a time when a _

_Lass needs a lawyer_

_But diamonds are a girl's best friend_

_There may come a time when a _

_Hard boiled employer thinks you're awful nice_

_But get that ice or else no dice_

_He's your guy when stocks are high_

_But beware when they start to descend_

_Diamonds are a girl's best_

_Diamonds are a girl's best_

_Diamonds are a girl's best friend_

_Cuz that's when those louses_

_Go back to their spouses_

_Diamonds are a girl's best friend_

The two ended in front of Draco and Blaise to tumultuous applause. They offered their hands to them as in the movie. The two guys grinned at the girls and took their hands, leading them to the dance floor. Luckily, Draco and Hermione had been allowed to also book a DJ so that there would be music aside from the karaoke.

Throughout the course of the night many students and even a few of the teachers went up tot he mic to sing. Halfway through the evening Hermione and Ginny were trying to get Draco and Blaise to do separate duets with them.

"No! I can't! I won't!"

"Anything but that! I hate singing. Ask her!"

"Please don't make us do it!"

Hermione and Ginny shared an amused glance.

"If you two don't come willingly, we'll put hexes on you."

"What are we singing, Mione?"

"Yeah, Gin. What are we gonna sing?"

**A/N:** Short I know, but I wanted to update and I can't think of anything else right now.


	30. Secondary Animals

**A/N:** Well, I'm glad you all liked the last chapter! Enjoy! Oh! And I realized that I had never really explained what Blaise looked like, so that's going to be in this chapter too.

**The Gryffindor Drummer:** Thanks for the idea on the song, I don't think I used that one, but I did use two Evanesence. Enjoy the chappie!

**Lilazn-american:** Thank you so much. I'm so glad you like it.

**WannaBArtist:** Of course Hermione knows hexes that aren't taught in school. How could she not?

**Steelo:** Hehehe, I'm evil when it comes to picking songs for people to sing. It should be funny just to imagine it. Enjoy!

**Sirusblackshottie:** I continue for you only. Hehehe.

**I-Confuse-Everyone:** I took your suggestions, hope you like.

**XILOVETHEFERRETX:** I would have loved to see their faces too. Hope you like the chapter!

**Danni:** Thankys and I hope you like it.

**Shadow's tears:** Glad you like it!

**Lilpuppy3:** Thanks you so much. Enjoy the chapter!

**Tinka Shimmer Belle: **More cookies! Yay! You're going to make me fat, Hehehe. But cookies are worth it. Enjoy!

**Secretspells311:** I updated. Yay me!

**Smiles28**: I hope you like my song choices. Hehehe!

**Hermione Charlotte Granger:** Thankys very much! Hope you like!

**Michelle Felton:** I love Sparkling Diamonds too. Its one of my fav.

**Sara sinks:** The goddess thing will come back into play a little bit more. Not quite yet though. But basically, every generation, the powers of a God or Goddess transfer from the previous generation. It's just to give the story a little more Chaos. ;-)

**KimKitty:** Thank you so much! I hope you like the chapter! It's a bit longer than the last.

**Previously**

"If you two don't come willingly, we'll put hexes on you."

"What are we singing, Mione?"

"Yeah, Gin. What are we gonna sing?"

**Chapter Thirty**

**Secondary Animals**

"I can't believe we made them sing by themselves. They're not bad though."

"Not at all. You do realize they picked songs from the only movie soundtrack they've ever heard, don't you?"

"Yeah, and what about us? We both sang Evanesence songs."

"True."

"Draco," Blaise interjected loudly, "remember the songs that we sang with them? The duets?"

"Oh yeah, I believe they were both from the same movie. Weren't they?"

The two girls grinned. They had been practically malicious when picking the two duets. Summer Lovin' for Ginny and Blaise and You're the One That I Want for Hermione and Draco. The girls had had so much fun watching the boys blush furiously while singing the song. It was the next day and the four were sitting in the Head's common room talking.

"So are you two ever going to tell us what you're going to wear before we see you in it?"

The two girls looked at each other, "Sure," Hermione said. "I'm wearing, well, why don't we just show you. C'mon Ginny."

Forty-five minutes later Hermione and Ginny came back out into the common room. Both girls were wearing jeans. Ginny had on a halter top with a string tie, six wooden beads on it, that met in the middle of her throat and attached to a silver ring. The top of the shirt gathered on the ring making a large loose drape about half way down her torso. The shirt ended with a four-inch band of snug material that started at her hips and covered the top part of her tight jeans. She also wore a pair of high-heeled boots. Her hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun with tendrils hanging around her face.

Hermione was wearing a pair of jeans and strappy high-heeled sandals. Her top was made of a four-inch, embroidered black band that went around her breasts. Hanging down from the band was black chiffon, all the way to her knees. The top was held up by a string that went around the neck and met the band in the middle of her chest. She too had her hair up, but only half of it. It had been pulled back so that it would be out of her face.

As per usual, both guys were speechless, well almost.

"Why do you two always have to look so bloody amazing?"

"Would you rather us change?"

"No! I didn't say that," Draco exclaimed, looking scandalized at the very thought. "Blaise, did you hear me say that?"

"Nope. But, I wouldn't mind if you put something underneath that, Hermione."

Hermione laughed, "Fat chance."

"Alright, now. If we're done, how bout we get going."

"Sounds good," Blaise said, putting his arm around Ginny. "Hey, where is the seventh year party?"

Hermione and Draco grinned and said in perfect unison, "Follow us."

o

The four reached the entrance hall to find that the rest of their house was waiting there. They all looked to Hermione and Draco. The males of the group, struck temporarily speechless, soon regained control of their mouths and one called out, "Oi! Hermione, Draco, where are we going?"

Once again, the two smirked. But this time they didn't say anything, and instead just walked into the Great Hall and over to the large fireplace. The sixth years all turned to look at them, scandalized that the seventh years were intruding upon their party. Draco shot them a look and all turned back to what they were doing.

Hermione and Draco took some floopowder off the mantel and threw it onto the fire. They stepped into the fire and Hermione shouted their location.

o

"I can't believe they're making us have classes today," Ginny groaned the next morning. She had slept in Hermione's room once again.

"I know, I know, I know. But as I've told you it was probably to make sure that we didn't party too hard, or whatever. Get over it. At least we only have the one class."

"Yeah, but it's a double."

"But it's one of our favorite classes."

"Is there a point to this?"

"It could have been worse."

"True."

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Hermione called.

The door opened to reveal Draco and Blaise, both looking very sleepy. If Hermione hadn't been related to Blaise she would have said that they both looked very fine, and probably would have been looking at him the same way Ginny was. As it was, she was content to look at Draco, who was still so sleepy that it wasn't even registering that Hermione was openly staring at him. When it finally did register, he stretched so that the muscles in his chest and arms. Realizing what he was doing, Hermione stood up and did the same. From his vantage point, Draco could see most of her body.

"You win," he said, his voice still heavy with sleep. Hermione smirked at him. They both looked at Ginny and Blaise. The two of them were still staring at each other, without realizing that they were doing so.

Ginny was wearing an outfit similar to Hermione. A pair of short, tight shorts that showed off her legs and a cropped tank top that camp halfway down her torso. Her hair was down and glinting in the morning light.

Blaise was wearing a pair of sapphire, satin PJ bottoms and a shirt that was unbuttoned. They both happened to match his Zabini eyes perfectly. He too had benefited from the hours of working out for Quidditch and had well defined abs and arms. His blue/black hair reminded Ginny very strongly of Harry's at the moment, as it was very unruly. However, his hair could be tamed and usually hung casually into his eyes.

"Well," Draco said, startling both of them, "If the two of you are finished ogling each other, I thought we might get dressed and then go down to breakfast together. Does that work for the three of you?"

"Sure, just let us change," Hermione said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek and shoving him and Blaise out of the door.

Twenty minutes later, the girls emerged from the room to see the boys sprawled on the couches talking about Quidditch.

"I can't wait until the season starts up again," Blaise was saying. "Why did Dumbledore postpone the season again?"

"He said that this autumn wasn't conducive to Quidditch this year because the weather was going to be really bad. And I must say, I agree. Remember all the storms we had? Imagine trying to play Quidditch in that weather," Draco said. He looked up as the girls entered the room. "Ready?" he asked. At an affirmative nod from Hermione the two boys got up and the four went down to breakfast.

o

_So what do you think of the lesson?_

_**Hermione Granger writing notes during class? What has the world come to?**_

_I'm sure you'll get over the shock, answer the question._

_**I think we'll either be fine or we'll have a lot of explaining to do.**_

Wouldn't it be cool if we were a couple of the occasional cases that had secondary forms? I mean, I could be a panther and an otter or something.

_**Why do you say otter? Why not another feline?**_

Oh, I just said otter because that's what my patronus is. Do you really thing I could be another kind of cat?

**Why not? Who can say? You might, you might not. I wonder if we really do have secondary animals. But then there's the fact where, even if we do have secondary animals, we don't know which one would show.**

Yeah, but- 

"Miss Granger! Mister Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall snapped. "Since the two of you seem so bored by this lesson, perhaps the two of you would like to go first. Mister Malfoy?"

Draco walked up to the front of the room and downed the potion that would force change him. It took a few seconds for the potion to take effect. When he opened his eyes he realized that his vantage point had lowered a few feet.

His senses were sharper, especially that of smell. He walked around the room and over to Hermione. Where some of the girl's perfumes were suffocating, Hermione had a refreshingly mild scent, rather like roses. He laid his head on her desk as she finished flipping through the book on her desk. She turned it toward him and pointed to an entry.

NUNDU M.O.M. Classification: XXXXX 

_This East African beast is arguably the most dangerous in the world. A gigantic leopard that moves silently despite its size and whose breath causes disease virulent enough to eliminate entire villages, it has never yet been subdued by fewer than a hundred skilled wizards working together._

When he had finished reading he looked at Hermione then walked back to the front of the room where McGonagall was standing. She tapped him on the head with her wand and a few seconds later he was himself again. Now it was Hermione's turn. When they passed each other he whispered, "You smell good."

When Mione opened her eyes after drinking the potion, she immediately looked at her hands. Normally when she transformed they were black, furry and had silver claws. Now however they were silver and hooves. Her coat was pure white. She looked around and saw Draco flipping through the book and so went over to him.

WINGED HORSE M.O.M. Classification: XX-XXXX 

Winged horses exist worldwide. There are many different breeds including the Abraxan (immensely powerful palaminos), the Aethonan (chestnut, popular in Britain and Ireland), the Granian (grey and particularly fast) and the rare Thestral (black, possessed of the power of invisibility, and considered unlucky by many wizards). As with the Hippogriff, the owner of a winged horse is required to perform a Disillusionment Charm upon it at regular intervals.

When she had finished reading she turned and saw that her wings were silver as well as her hooves. She went back to the front and was herself within moments.

Blaise was the next to go. He too seemed to have a second form. It was a tiger. He padded around the room majestically for a bit and then jumped onto Ginny's desk and lay there unconcerned until McGonagall called him back to the front.

Ginny would have gone next had it not been for Harry getting up first. He walked to the front of the room and took the potion. He looked out at the class, especially at Ron and Hermione. Hermione had gasped and started looking through notes. She motioned him over to her and showed him a piece of parchment that had her notes from their DADA class the previous week. He was a Swamplight Lynx.

He left to walk around the classroom. Hermione looked at him and wrote down his qualities. His fur was as black as her panthers except for around his scar, which was bright red. She noticed that Harry's eyes remained the same green as always. He grew a tail and tufts on the ends of his ears. He put his nose in the air and sniffed. It was like he was trying to isolate a single smell. He ended back by Hermione, she was what smelled so clean. Many of the other girls had strong smells about them but they choked him. He laid his head on desk much as Draco had.

McGonagall called him back to the front of the room and before she called for a new volunteer, Ginny had stood and was walking toward the front of the class.

She took the potion and felt herself shrink. Two of her teeth elongated and sharpened. She turned her head, no longer having hands or arms to look at. She felt her body bend easily and was able to coil all the way around after seeing the black scales. She looked to Hermione and glided over to her. Hermione had written one word on a piece of parchment and lowered it so she could read it.

Cobra 

"All right, Miss Weasley. If you could come back up here. As the bell is about to ring I would remind you all that your homework is to research and write a short essay about the differences between force change potions and becoming an Animagi.

**A/N:** I know I didn't talk about the party, but I will next chapter. Plus I just felt like not writing anymore. Hehe. I got the info on the Nundu and Winged Horse from FBAWTFT and the Swamlight Lynx came from Sloane Miette who got it from Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual. Oh and where do y'all think they went for the party?

Kat


	31. Impressive

**A/N:** I am so sorry about the last chapter, I reposted it, but it didn't change at all. And then it did, it was complicated. But it's all good now.

**WannaBArtist:** I did forget, but then I changed it, so haha!

**Shadow's tears:** I went back and tried to do that, but it only showed one entry as being in italics when I put both of them in italics. Stupid website! Grrr!

**Michelle Felton:** Yeah, she's a cobra, I forgot to put that in the original post but it says it now. smiles sheepishly at the confession

**Steelo: **You were close with the guesses about where they went, but not quite. You'll see. As for the secondary forms, I just wanted to use some more animals and I wanted a way to work it into class without the four having to disclose their forms because if they did then they could be recognized. So yeah. Enjoy the chappy.

**Lilpuppy3: **Thank you! Glad you like it! Enjoy.

**Hermione Charlotte Granger:** She's a cobra. Sorry, the repost has it on there. Hehe.

**Sirusblackshottie:** I can't wait till the next book comes out either! Woot woot! I was going to go to a Knotts Berry Farm once, but then we didn't. Hehe. Have fun!

**Lovedrher:** It's called Sparkling Diamonds and it's sung by Nicole Kidman on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. And you were the only one to actually guess correctly where they went! Silver! Woot!

**Smiles28:** That is too funny! Lol. Enjoy!

**The Gryffindor Drummer:** I'm glad you liked, hope you like this chapter, too!

**TinkerBell14934:** What do you mean about the book? I Googled the title and got Goddess of the Night by Lynne Ewing. Is that what you meant? I hope to hear from you again.

**Benjisevilqueen1979:** Thank you!

**Secretspells311:** Thankys very much! Enjoy the chapter!

**XXWitchXx:** This is just for you mock bows.

**Previously**

Cobra 

"All right, Miss Weasley. If you could come back up here. As the bell is about to ring I would remind you all that your homework is to research and write a short essay about the differences between force change potions and becoming an Animagi."

**Chapter Thirty-One **Can you believe it? I can't!

**Impressive**

"Professor?"

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"Well, first things, that's the second time today that you've called me Granger and not Zabini."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just not used to your name yet. It will take some time."

"I realize that. And did you remember that today we're having a double period?"

"Again, you're right. Class, resume your seats please and we'll continue with the lesson."

o 

That afternoon in the great hall all sixth years were talking excitedly about the lesson. Ron and Harry and dragged Hermione off to ask her how they could become Animagi. She looked at them before laughing.

"What!" They asked simultaneously, affronted.

"Well, its just the idea of you two doing extra work. You do realize that there is a lot of work to be done, don't you?''

It was Harry who answered, rolling his eyes, "No, Hermione, we didn't realized that we'd need to do extra work."

"Besides," Ron cut in, "we figured you'd want to become an Animagus too, so we could all work on it together."

Hermione looked at him before transforming into her panther form. Both boys jumped back a step and then looked at her incredulously as she resumed her human form.

"But-but-when-"

"When did I become and Animagus?"

"Yeah."

"Almost a year ago. Sirius taught me. Or rather helped me. I did most of it on my own."

"Will you help us though, Mione?"

"Of course. Then there will be six of us who can wander the grounds at night," she said smirking, waiting for them to ask.

"Six? Mione, there will only be three of us," Ron said.

Harry, however, had caught on. "Who else?"

"Well, I taught Ginny last year. And," she said, cutting Ron off, "the only reason I taught her was because she wouldn't leave it alone after she caught me sneaking back into the common room one night."

"There are still two more."

"Yea, Blaise had already started working on it before this summer, and I helped him figure out the issues he was having. And well, Draco, I don't know how long he's been able to."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Ron, I tell you two practically everything. I know that we haven't been hanging out as much this year, but I still tell you what's going on. I wanted something just for me. And this was it."

"Wait," Harry said. "You just turned into a panther, right? Well, in class didn't you turn into a winged horse?"

Hermione smiled, "Yep! I still haven't figured out how to actually choose which form I go into, but Draco, Blaise and Ginny all also have secondary forms. And I think you will too, Ron."

"Why is that?"

"Because when McGonagall gave you the potion, you're form flickered at first, just like it did with the other three. You fully turned into the owl, but you flickered into a fox form first. Many people wouldn't have noticed but I noticed it with Draco and looked for it in all the other classmates."

"Cool," he said.

Harry began to ask her something but she cut him off, "Meet me in the Room of Requirement tonight and Ginny and I will help you find out what you need to know. It'll go a lot faster if there are two of us. Come around 9."

"Okay," the boys said.

o 

"Hey Ginny! Want to help me help Harry and Ron become Animagi?"

"Sure," she answered, not looking up. "When and where?"

"Tonight in the-"

"Um, Hermione, aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?" she asked, confused.

Ginny rolled her eyes at her friend, "Think a minute. What is going on tonight?"

Hermione stood, eyes fixed on a distant point, thinking. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she cringed, slapping her forehead with her hand. "Oh my God! I feel really stupid!"

"Didya remember something, Hermione?" Ginny asked sarcastically, smirking at her.

"I hate you," she laughed. "I'll be right back."

o 

"So, Harry, how long do you think it'll take us to pull it off?"

"Couple months, at the least. I don't know, honestly. It took my dad and Sirius a while to, didn't it?"

"Yea-WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT!"

The two boys were in their dormitory talking about the lesson and what they thought would happen that night when they heard a collision against their window. When they looked all they saw was a large silver wing.

"Harry?"

"Yeah, Ron?"

"What is that?"

Harry grinned, realization dawning, "That, Ron, is Hermione."

He ran over to the window and wrenched it open. He saw her fly several feet away then turn back to the window. She started flying towards their room. When she was about a foot away, her form rippled into that of a panther and she flew a foot into the room before tumbling onto the floor gracefully. When she stood she was, once again, herself.

"Hermione, that's got to be one of the more amazing things I've seen in my seven years at Hogwarts," Harry said, watching her dust herself off. "And you know as well as I, that I've seen some pretty amazing things."

"Well thank you, my good sir," she said, curtseying.

"Now, what are you doing here?"

"Um, well, you know our little meeting tonight?"

"Yeah?"

Hermione bit her lip and looked down at her hands, which were twisting nervously, "Well," she began, but Harry put up a hand to stop her.

"You want to go to the event tonight, right?"

"No, it's just that I forgot that we're all, including you two and most of our large group of friends, supposed to leave tonight for Malfoy Manor. I forgot to give you two your invitations," she added sheepishly.

For a minute there was silence, then the two boys erupted into laughter.

"What!" Hermione demanded.

"Malfoy figured that you had forgotten to give them to us the other day when he asked if we were coming and we had no idea what he was talking about! We forgot about it as well when we made the plans with you, we were just going to remind you at dinner," Ron barely managed to get out.

It took a minute for Hermione to process it, but when she got it through her head, she too started to laugh. "Right, well, I'll see you boys later," she said and transformed into the winged horse, walked over to the still open window, climbed onto the ledge and took off into the air.

o 

"Hermione? Is that you?"

"Yeah. Where are you?"

"I'm in my room. Packing."

A moment later Draco entered her room. "Looking forward to this weekend?"

"Which part?" she asked, giving a slight chuckle. "Meeting your mother, or tonight's dinner, or the Ball tomorrow?"

Draco smirked, "My mother is nothing like my father. The two of you should get on quite well."

"Glad to hear it. When do we leave?"

"In about half an hour."

"What? I thought I had at least an hour."

"Yeah, well, you don't. Need any help?"

"Um, I don't think so. I think I've got it all. I'm actually almost done. Just one quick question."

"And that would be?" Draco inquired, sprawling upon Hermione's neat bed.

"What do I need to wear to dinner this evening?"

"Ah, yes. The "formal dinner". Well, it depends on how dressed up you like to get." Hermione raised her eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

"Well, there are those who dress to impress, my mother among them. A few of the girls will, according to the muggle saying, dress to the nines. They'll wear full length evening gowns while others will wear dresses or skirts. So it depends on your personal preference. Though I must say, I wouldn't mind if you chose to get all dressed up."

"Oh you wouldn't, would you?"

"Not at all."

"And what will you be wearing?"

"Dress robes. All men wear dress robes to formal wizarding occasions."

"Figures." Hermione and Draco fell into a comfortable silence and Hermione continued her packing. When she finished she turned to him, "So we have about ten minutes before we leave. Where are we leaving from?"

"Well, if you're ready, there's no reason we can't leave now. I talked to Dumbledore and he said that the Head's fireplace has always been connected to the Floo Network. So come on. Let's go."

o 

"Draco? You're early," Narcissa Malfoy said, walking down the main staircase into the entryway of Malfoy Manor. "I wasn't expecting you and Miss Zabini for another ten minutes."

"Well, we were ready early, so we thought we'd come a little early." Draco said, embracing his mother warmly and kissing her on both cheeks. Turning to Hermione he said, "Miss Hermione Zabini, I'd like to introduce you to my mother, Narcissa Malfoy."

The two women embrace each other in the same greeting that Draco had given his mother. "It is a pleasure to meet you at last, Ms. Malfoy."

"Please, Hermione, call me Narcissa. And I assure you, from everything Draco has told me about you, the pleasure is entirely mine. Draco, would you show Hermione the room she will be staying in?"

"Of course. Follow me. _Locomortor trunks_." The two walked down many halls. "You know that every night we have another party located on the top floor which is just us students right? I did tell you that, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did. That would be why I brought some of my clubbing clothes."

"Oh, like that thing you wore last night?"

"I know you like the top, but after last night, I don't think its safe to wear around you again," she answered smirking.

**A/N:** I promise that you'll actually find out what happened the previous night in the next chapter. And how about Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince! Tell me how all of you liked it. I love getting everyone's opinions.

Kat


	32. Past and Present Fun

**A/N:** Well, thanks to everyone who reviewed, and here ya go. I hope you like it!

**Lilpupy3:** I did! Hehe!

**Shadow's tears:** Well, here you are, you finally get to know where they went and what happened! Woot! Ah, yes, Snape, I was hoping that he wouldn't become evil, but alas. Sigh, there is always the possibility that he only did it because of the vow, which he only made to protect his status as spy. Because if he didn't make it, then they would have known that he was good and that would have been bad. So there is always the slightest chance that its not what we think. But frankly, I highly doubt it. Don't be ashamed, we don't even get a whole lot of my three favorite characters. All three of them have red hair. grins Fred, George and Ginny, though Gred and Forge are my all time favorites. Oh well, now that I've rambled on a ton, I hope you like the chapter!

**Secretspells311:** Yup, gotta love copy and paste. Enjoy the chappy.

**Steelo:** As much as I was hoping that Deadguy wouldn't die, I kinda understand it. It's gonna make Harry grow up faster. As with the sports, I too love volleyball. I also love to play softball. If you're talking about sports that I like to watch then college football all the way, baby! Woot!

**Robin777:** I love Goblet of Fire too, but I think that Half-Blood Prince is the best. But that's me. I hope you like the chapter.

**Previously**

"You know that every night we have another party located on the top floor which is just us students right? I did tell you that, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did. That would be why I brought some of my clubbing clothes."

"Oh, like that thing you wore last night?"

"I know you like the top, but after last night, I don't think its safe to wear around you again," she answered smirking.

**Chapter Thirty-Two**

**Past and Present Fun**

"I was able to fix it, but if I wear it around you again you'll probably TRY to tear it."

"I didn't!" Draco said indignantly.

"I know, last night it was an accident, but I'm saying that now you know that its possible, you'll try to do it again."

"True," Draco smirked, remembering the party the previous evening.

o 

"Silver!"

Within seconds, the couple found themselves in a small antechamber with only the fireplace they had just exited and a door leading out of the room. They passed through the doorway and found themselves in a long underground corridor. When they reached the end of the hallway there was another door. Outside this door was a large, muscular man who had demanded, "I.D." They had both held up their hands which both housed a ring that perfectly matched their eyes. The rings had appeared the moment they stepped out of the fire.

The bouncer had opened the door but Hermione spoke, "There is a large group of students coming behind us. Many of them have never been here before. They won't know what to do when you ask for I.D. Just ask them to show you the rings."

"Yes, Miss Zabini. Mr. Black is at the bar if you would like to see him."

"Thanks a lot, Greg."

"Your welcome, have a good time," he had said grinning at her.

o 

"Sirius! It's great to see you! How are you?"

"I'm fabulous, Hermione. And you?"

"Very good. Looking forward to having fun."

Sirius had smiled, "Good. Now, you know the rules. As far as the alcohol goes, you're the deciding factor. You know the bartenders, tell them who can have what. Sound fair?"

"Very," she had answered, grinning. "In fact, I was just going to ask you if that could be the case. But I don't think it will be a problem anyway. I think everyone can manage. But I don't want to impose a cut-off at 6 drinks max."

"That's wise. You astound me every time I see you, Hermione," Sirius had said, shaking his head and smiling at her. He put one arm around her and gave her a quick hug. "Have fun, you two. It's good to see you, Draco."

"You too, Sirius. I'd like to have a word with you in a bit."

"Okay, I'll be here, most likely. If I'm not, just ask Aubrey where I am, he'll know."

"Alright, later," he said as Hermione dragged him, forcibly, to the dance floor.

An hour or so later and the club was still in full swing. A fast song came on and Hermione and Draco left the bar where they had been sitting, cooling off and getting a drink, and headed back onto the dance floor.

While they were dancing Draco's hand had caught on a loose end of Hermione's top. Before he could tell her to stop and that he had gotten caught, she moved away from him and the chiffon had torn away from the embroidered band around her breasts. Hermione had looked down at the ripping sound coming from her chest and had been stunned to see that half of her top was missing. She had looked around and saw Draco standing there with a surprised look on his face while holding the other part of her shirt. She was now wearing only a pair of jeans and a band of embroidered material around her chest held up by a fragile cord around her neck.

Draco had looked from Hermione to the piece of material in his hand back to Hermione. He had grinned cheekily at her and said, "Looks better that way."

o 

"You know," Draco said, coming out of his reverie, "It really does look better without all that flowy material."

"I'm sure," Hermione answered raising an eyebrow. "How far do I have to go to get to my room?"

Draco looked around, then smiled sheepishly. "We passed your rooms about five minutes ago. Sorry, I was kinda lost in thought. Remembering last night. Let's go."

Hermione shook her head, but turned to follow him. "I have a question for you," she said.

"Fire away."

"What did you want to talk to Sirius about last night?"

"Oh, that. It was just about him and my mum."

"So you finally found out, huh?"

"What d'you mean, 'finally'?"

"I mean, where do you think he went when you first went to Silver? He was going out on a date with your mum, but he knew she hadn't told you yet. Didn't you notice the funny look he gave you?"

"You know, I always wondered about that. But yeah, mum told me a couple weeks ago, and that was the first time I'd been able to talk to Sirius about it."

"Well, what did you say to him."

"Oh you know, just the 'don't hurt her, she really likes you' kind of stuff. She doesn't have an older brother to be overprotective so I try to take the job on myself."

Hermione laughed, "Well, you don't have to worry about him hurting your mum, he's in love." She dragged out the last word of the sentence.

"Yeah I know. He asked my permission to ask her to marry him."

"Really?" Hermione asked, amazed. "I didn't know it was _that_ serious."

"Yeah. Neither did I. Apparently he's planning on asking her this weekend. I'm glad he asked me though. It was very respectful."

"He knows how close the two of you are." She was about to say more but Draco cut her off.

"Here we are. Your rooms, mademoiselle," he said, opening the door and bowing her in.

Hermione's breath caught. The room was a mix of midnight blue and silver. There were three sets of French doors leading out onto a balcony overlooking the grounds on the back wall. On the left wall was the large bed, centered between two small nightstands. The four poster bed had a blue comforter with silver patterns running across the border. There were four large, fluffy pillows and blue drapes. The rest of the room was set up very much like her room at Hogwarts. There was a setee at the end of the bed and a large walk in closet. Across from her bed, on the opposite wall, was an armoire that opened to reveal a full entertainment system.

She turned to look at Draco who was lounging on her bed. He smiled at her, "I knew you'd like this room."

"Like it? I love it!"

He grinned, "So what do you want to do first?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, would you like to fly? Swim? Run? What? Think of something you want to do, and we'll do it."

"You have a pool?"

"But of course," he said grinning.

"How about we swim?" she suggested, biting her lower lip.

"Sounds good to me. Get changed and I'll be back here in 10 minutes. Is that enough time for you to get ready?" he asked.

"Plenty. Is that enough time for you?"

Draco smirked, "I don't know, it'll be cutting it pretty close."

o 

"Blaise actually let you buy that?"

Hermione was wearing an emerald green string bikini. The two triangles covering her chest were almost too small while the bottoms were low enough that her hip bones were clearly visible above the top. She also wore a sheer black wrap around her hips but was tied so loosely that it looked like it was about to fall off.

"Draco Malfoy, what makes you think that I go shopping with Blaise?"

"The fact that the both of you have said that you were practically inseperable this summer."

"Well, for your information, I went shopping with Ginny several times this summer, without Blaise. Besides, Blaise has never seen this," she said, smirking.

"He's going to in about 5 seconds."

"Wha-?'

"What the ruddy hell is that, Hermione?"

Hermione whipped around to find Blaise trouping up the stairs with Harry, Ron, Connor, Justin, Owen and a boy that Hermione didn't recognize.

"It's called a bikini, Blaise. And if I'm not mistaken, Ginny will be wearing one when she comes up. I assume that the girls will be joining us, correct." The boys all nodded and Blaise shrugged, letting the matter drop. The boys then made their way to the lounge chairs as a group. They took off their shirts, set their towels down and walked to the edge of the pool where Hermione was standing.

"My sister doesn't own anything like that," Ron mumbled.

"Oh yes, she does," Hermione said. "See, look, she's coming right now. Oh! And what is that she's wearing?" She pretended to be confused.

Up the stairs came several girls, all in bikinis or tankinis. Ginny led the pack wearing a black string bikini and emerald wrap to match Hermione's. Behind her was Aella, Selene, Padma, Parvati, Mandy and Lisa. They stopped at the top of the stairs when all the boys whipped around to stare at them.

"Gin-!"

"Shut it, Ron. Don't even start. I bought it, I'm wearing it, and there's no returning it, so get over your overprotective-older-brother bit," Ginny snapped, effectively shutting her older brother up before he had time to get on a roll. The girls all walked over to where Hermione and the boys had left their clothes.

Aella looked around at all of them. Ron and Ginny didn't seem to realize that their little sibling act made some people uneasy. "Can we have some fun here?"

Ginny looked at Aella and grinned, "You know what? That sounds like a great idea! I knew there was a reason I liked you." She walked over to Aella and they threw their arms around each other and walked over to the edge of the pool where the boys were standing. Ginny leaned over to Aella's ear and whispered something that made the other girl laugh and nod.

**A/N:** Wow, this is the fastest I've gotten a chapter up in a long time. It'll be a little longer next time, because my power cord for my laptop is being wonky and it has to be replaced. I don't know when I'll be able to get to the Apple Store to replace it, but I hope it will be soon. Until then…

Kat


	33. Malfoy Family Dinner

**A/N:** Last time was a really fast update, I hope that this is just as fast. **It has been brought to my attention that Sirius and Narcissa are cousins, which I had forgotten. For the purpose of my story, they are no longer cousins. Muahahahahaha! **I'm an evil author, but a cool evil author. Oh and in case anyone cares, I want to name my first daughter Aella. Hehehe! I'm such a geek. :-P

With regards to the dresses, here are some common terms:

**Empire waist(line**)-the waistline come to right underneath the breasts.

**Brooch-** its just a fancy pin.

**Tiered-**layered, overlapping.

**Rhinestones-**hehehe, I just put this here as a joke, but they're little sparkly things that I like, fake diamonds. Woot!

As always, if you want to see the pictures I based them off of, let me know!

**The Gryffindor Drummer: **Thank you very much! I hope you like this chapter.

**Michelle Felton:** I'm glad you like it. Enjoy!

**XXWitchXx:** It wasn't the computer itself, just the power plug. But I got it replaced, so we're all good now. Thanks so much!

**Shadow's tears:** I forgot that Sirius and Narcissa were cousins, therefore, they aren't anymore! Hahahahaha! I'm an evil author that changes things too suit my purposes.

**Previously**

Aella looked around at all of them. Ron and Ginny didn't seem to realize that their little sibling act made some people uneasy. "Can we have some fun here?"

Ginny looked at Aella and grinned, "You know what? That sounds like a great idea! I knew there was a reason I liked you." She walked over to Aella and they threw their arms around each other and walked over to the edge of the pool where the boys were standing. Ginny leaned over to Aella's ear and whispered something that made the other girl laugh and nod.

**Chapter Thirty-Three**

**Malfoy Family Dinner**

The two girls disengaged themselves and walked over to where the boys were waiting with mischievous looks on their faces.

o 

"I still can't believe you didn't see that coming, Blaise."

Blaise rolled his eyes, "Yeah yeah yeah, I know."

"And, may I say, Ginny? That was perfectly executed," Hermione said grinning.

Hermione, Ginny, Blaise and Draco were all heading towards the corridor of the manor that housed their rooms. The rest of the group was staying on the floor above. Malfoy Manor housed many floors of rooms. The floor that the foursome was staying on was the family floor. Besides Draco's and Narcissa's rooms, it held four other guest bedrooms that were reserved for the most important guests. The floor above the family's was entirely for guests. There was a total of ninety-eight guest rooms.

The group had been floating lazily around the pool on inflatable rafts (which took only a wave of the wand to inflate) talking, boys occaisionally splashing the girls, some girls playing with the boys, having a diving contest and in general fooling around, when Lisa had told them that it was only two hours until dinner. The rest of the girls had practically flown out of the pool.

Hermione had been remembering the moment when Ginny and Aella had tackled Blaise and Ron, respectively, into the pool.

o 

"You get Ron, I'll get Blaise. Deal?"

Aella grinned and nodded, laughing. The two girls walked over to where the boys were standing around. Most of the guys were huddled around the side of the pool, talking. Owen and Justin had gone to the other end of the pool and had already dived in. When Aella and Ginny were just a few feet away they sped up into a trot, looked at each other, looked back at their targets, and collided with two teenage boy bodies. They pushed as strong arms wrapped around them and they fell forward, bracing against the expected cold impact of the water.

The four came gasping up for breath moments later. Aella and Ginny grinned and hi-fived each other. Blaise shook his head and smoothed down his hair, pointed to Ginny as said, grinning, "You are so going to pay for that." He and Ron had then preceded to dunk Aella and Ginny, thus starting the fun Aella had been searching for.

o 

"So how long do you girls think it will take you to get ready," Draco asked as they reached their respective rooms.

"Draco, mate, it'll take the entire two hours. Want to go watch a movie-hey! Watch it!" Blaise yelled as both Hermione and Ginny hit him upside the head. Draco just laughed.

o 

One hour and fifty-nine minutes later, Hermione emerged from her room. She was wearing a simple, black, satin, one shouldered dress. The empire waistline accentuated the curves that the dress hugged nicely without being obscenely tight. Her long black hair was up in an elegant braided crown with two tendrils framing her face. Rhinestones had been braided into her hair in several places. She wore no jewelry whatsoever letting the rhinestones in her hair and the shinning brooch on her dress strap do the job. Her eyes were rimmed in black eyeliner and mascara and her lips were covered in a layer of shiny lipgloss.

Ginny was wearing a brown, chiffon dress, obviously lined, with a v-neck and empire waistline. Above the waistline, the material covering her breasts twisted right below the collarbone over her shoulder to the same place on the other side of her body, making an identical v on her back. The waistline consisted of an inch and a half of bronze sequins. There was about six inches of material between this and another line of sequins. The skirt then freely flowed down to her toes. Her red hair was up with a golden chain winding through it. Her make-up was done in warm hues with a sheer lipgloss. She wore no jewelry, like Hermione.

"You look gorgeous, Ginny!"

"You don't look too bad yourself, Mione," grinned Ginny.

"Ready to go down?" Hermione asked.

Ginny was about to reply when two boys came around the corner and stopped dead.

"Oh boy," Draco said softly. He walked over to Hermione, and put an arm around her waist, his body perpendicular to hers. "You look stunning, Hermione," he whispered, kissing her temple.

Hermione blushed and looked at Ginny to find her friend smiling at her cousin who had presented her with a single white rose. Ginny buried her nose into the flower and sniffed, closing her eyes for a second. She smiled at the sight and turned back to Draco, "Thank you. And you look very handsome," she said, turning in his arms and putting her arms around his neck, leaning up to give him a quick kiss. He took her hands in his and put one arm through his. He turned to address Blaise and Ginny.

"Are we ready to go?"

o 

"Master Draco Malfoy and Miss Hermione Zabini."

The two walked down the main staircase and through the packed entrance hall. As they were fashionably late, all the guests in the hall turned to look at them. Hermione noticed many of the girls were shooting her jealous looks while Draco noticed many of the guys drooling. They went off to the side to wait for their friends to find them. It didn't take long. A moment later Harry and Padma walked over to them, closely followed by Aella and Ron.

As with Draco and Blaise, Harry and Ron were also wearing classy, black, dress robes. Their dates, like Draco and Blaise's, were all gussied up.

Padma was wearing a fitted, silk dress that was bronze in color and had some sequin accents on the abdomen. The front of the asymmetrical hem came down to the fronts of her knees while the back touched the floor, even in her three-inch heels. She had left her dark hair down and wore simple, silver hoop earings.

Aella had pulled all her hair pulled to the back of her head in an elegant bun to show off the straps on her dress. The floor length, red, satin gown had two sets of straps. One set started at the top, outside corners of the dress and crossed in the middle of her back to come back to the dress a few inches under her shoulder blades. The other set created a v in the front and crossed the other set of straps on her shoulders and continued right over them to attach back to the dress right under her arms.

Harry gave Hermione a hug, "You look beautiful, Hermione."

"You look pretty good, too,' she answered.

This custom continued with the girls hugging girls and guys and the guys shaking each others hands. Ginny and Blaise had joined the rest of their group before seeking out to find them.

Selene was wearing a simply green satin dress with a v-neck and empire waist. The neckline was low enough that the two sides did not come together until they met at the waist. She wore a simple silver chain that went to mid stomach and silver bracelets on each wrist. Her long black hair had been left down, but she had parted it on the right side for the occasion.

Mandy was wearing a short black dress with spaghetti straps and an empire waist. Attached to the waist was a round brooch covered in rhinestones. The dress ended right above her knees, but the tulle prevented it from being too short.

Lisa was also wearing black. She wore a two piece set. The skirt was long and flowing and hugged her hips just a little. She wore a strapless top with front boning and lacing in the back. She wore a tiered silver necklace.

Parvati was wearing a long periwinkle dress with a row of rhinestones rimming the bottom edge of the dress about six inches from the hem. The two straps also had rhinestones about two inches from the shoulders and the v-neck ended in a v of rhinestones ending somewhere around her navel. Her dark hair was pulled back from her face and she wore no jewelry as the dress sparkled all on its own.

Selene had come with the boy that Hermione hadn't recognized. His name was Jesse and he had graduated the year before from the same American school Selene had gone to somewhere in the Midwest. After graduating he had gotten a job in England at the Ministry of Magic. They had been dating for three years, their anniversary was the next day.

Lisa and Mandy had come with Owen and Justin, respectively while Parvati had come on the arm of Connor, who had gotten over his initial infatuation with Ginny. He had gotten to know the people in his new house, and become very good friends with Padma who had then introduced him to Parvati. They had gotten along so well that they spent a lot of time just hanging out together. Now they would take turns sneaking out of their common rooms and going to the other's.

"If you would all like to proceed into the dining room, dinner is about to be served."

The assembled crowd started to move towards the indicated door and Hermione could see that Draco had been right. Some women were wearing elegant gowns, such as herself, while others wore nice skirts or dress robes. When she walked into the dining room she let out a breath and gazed around the room, amazed.

**A/N:** Well, wasn't quite as fast as the last one. I already got my power cord replaced, woot woot! Like I said earlier, if you want to see the pictures the dresses are based off of, lemme know! Later days!

Kat


	34. An Engagement to Remember

**A/N:** To all the reviews I've gotten about the Goddess thing seeming to have come and gone rather quickly, don't worry, it's actually going to start up again this chapter or next, not a whole lot, but its going to build up over a few.

**Secretspells311:** Sorry I forgot you last time, I updated before I finished answering reviews. Whoops! And it made me feel so special that you didn't copy or paste sniffs and wipes away a tear. And I really appreciate your honest opinion about last chapter, next time can you tell me what you didn't like? That way I know some things that I could have done differently. Thanks again.

**Hermione Charlotte Granger:** Sorry I didn't get back to you last chapter, I hope you liked what Ginny and Aella did. Hope you like this chapter!

**Sammi J.** Thanks for the nice review, enjoy the chappy!

**Steelo:** As I've told the others, sorry I forgot you last time, I updated before I finished answering reviews. That's awesome about the sports. It's really funny because my mom just broke a bone in her foot too, though nothing quite so glamorous as how you did. Hehehe. And here's a little Goddess action for you soon.

**The Gryffindor Drummer:** I'm so glad you like this and that you're still reading, woot!

**Shadow's tears:** You didn't give me an email address, silly! That's really funny that I sound like your friend, Hehehe! Enjoy the chapter!

**Harrypotterluvr1: blushes, sniffs and wipes away a tear** Thank you so much! That's one of the nicest, if not **the** nicest, review I've ever gotten. Thanks! Enjoy the chapter!

**Hazelocean:** Thank you very much! Hope you like!

**Sirusblackshottie:** I hope you liked the dresses!

**D-daygirl:** I don't have any other stuff yet. But as soon as I do, you'll know!

**Smiles28:** I'm glad you like it. Enjoy this one!

**Previously**

The assembled crowd started to move towards the indicated door and Hermione could see that Draco had been right. Some women were wearing elegant gowns, such as herself, while others wore nice skirts or dress robes. When she walked into the dining room she let out a breath and gazed around the room, amazed.

**Chapter Thirty-Four**

**A Special Engagement**

Looking around the room, Hermione saw a large chandelier in the center of the ceiling with layers of crystal reflecting the light. The long table was set with white and silver china. Each plate had a silver floral design emanating from the center of the plate. Each setting consisted of two stacked plates, a small bowl above and to the left of the plates with a crystal goblet to the right. There were several pieces of silverware to each side of the plates. On top of each setting was a small folded card with a name on it. Hermione walked down the table, searching. She rounded the end of the table and finally saw her name, next to Draco's, second from the head of the table.

Draco pulled out her chair and pushed it in for her after she had sat down. "Thank you," she said. He just grinned in answer and sat down on her left. When they were seated, she looked around again to see who was sitting near her. On her right was Blaise, and next to him, Ginny. Directly across from her and Draco were her parents and then Blaise's parents, her aunt and uncle. Hermione looked to the head of the table and saw Narcissa, looking stunning with her long blonde hair piled atop her head, leaving her elegant neck exposed. She wore a simple satin dress in a deep navy blue with a v-neck. There was no kind of decoration on the dress at all. She wore no earrings, bracelets, or rings. The only jewelry she wore was a simple silver chain with a small brilliant cut diamond hanging from the middle.

Next to Narcissa was Sirius, looking smart in emerald dress robes. When Hermione looked at him he winked at her and beckoned her over to him. She excused herself and made her way over too Sirius, placing her napkin on her chair as she went. When she reached him, he stood and embraced her. Her pulled her over to the corner with his back to the table.

Hermione started before he could open his mouth, "So I hear that congratulations may be in order soon."

Sirius grinned at her, "As long as she says 'yes.'"

"I'm sure she will, Sirius. Did you tell Harry?" At an affirmative nod she continued, "When are you going to ask her?"

"Tonight, at the end of dinner."

"In front of everyone?" She had raised her eyebrows and was looking at him.

The grin vanished from his face, and now he looked worried, "Why? You don't think she'll say yes?"

o 

"Oh, Draco, I'm so glad that you like Sirius, he makes me so happy," Narcissa said to her son, grasping his hand. She looked briefly over at the man she was talking about, then back at her son. Draco smiled to himself. "What? What is that look?"

"What look?"

"That one, that's on your face."

"I don't have a look, mum. Now will you excuse me please, I would like to have a word with Sirius."

"Oh, alright. I don't supposed there's really anyway that I could stop you."

"Nope," he said, getting out of his seat. As he passed his mother he bent down and kissed her on her temple.

o 

"That's not what I meant! I was just-"

"Sirius?"

"Yes, Draco?"

"When are you going to ask her?"

"Well, I was planning on asking her after dinner, but-"

"Do it."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Hermione looked at me like I was nuts to do it in front of everyone."

"It's not that, it's just-I don't-do you really want to ask her in front of a bunch of people you don't know?"

Sirius and Draco looked at her and then at each other. "She's got a good point," Draco said.

"Yes, she does."

"I have an idea," Draco said, his eyes lighting up with excitement. For the next few minutes the three stood in the corner, whispering excitedly. Once or twice, Narcissa would look over and wonder what they were talking about so animatedly, but shrugged it off and returned to the conversation she was having. The meal started a few minutes later and no one remembered what they were saying as they started in on the magnificent food.

o 

The evening was over, people were leaving and everyone had had a wonderful time. Some of Narcissa and Sirius's close friends, Hermione's parents Andreas and Chloe and Remus and Tonks, were staying a little longer. The adults had sent over a change of clothes for after the dinner. They would change into them and then go into the large sitting room and stay up and talk for hours.

Meanwhile, the teens would go to the top floor of the manor where the pool was. The room was bigger than Hermione had originally thought. There was a wooden floor behind the pool. The entire room was now ready for a party. In a few minutes.

Before the adults could change, and before Draco, Hermione and Harry went to change, Sirius gathered them in the sitting room.

"I would like to have you all here for a moment. Those of you here tonight represent a myriad of things to me." He looked to Hermione as he began to address those in the room, "From son, brother and friend," he looked to Harry, Remus and Andreas, " to sister, business partner and confidant," he looked to Tonks, Hermione and Draco. "Each one of you is a part of my past." He turned to Narcissa as he drew something out of his pocket and went down on one knee. "But will you, Narcissa Malfoy, be a part of my future?"

There was silence for a moment as Narcissa looked down at the ring that Sirius was holding out to her. Her face was a mask of utmost happiness. It took a moment for her to see it, but Hermione saw that there were faint tear tracks making their way down Narcissa's fair cheeks. Then she sniffed and let out her breath and started laughing softly, saying "Of course," over and over again as she pulled him up and kissed him forcefully.

Draco put his arm around Hermione's waist as he came to stand behind her. She was watching the couple with her hands clasped up at her mouth. When she felt Draco come up behind her she leaned to the left slightly looking over her right shoulder, smiling at him. "That was a brilliant idea, Draco."

"I have to agree, shall we go congratulate them?"

"Let's go," she said, she took his hand in hers and practically dragged him over to the happy couple.

Hermione ran to hug Sirius and Draco to Narcissa.

"Congratulations, Sirius. I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks, Mione."

"Congratulations, Mum."

"Thank you, Draco. I'm so happy!"

They switched. The two women embraced each other. They pulled away and smiled widely at each other for a moment before Hermione said, "Well, Sirius didn't show me the ring before hand, so do I get to see it?"

Narcissa laughed and held out her left hand. There, on the ring finger, was a simple silver band with a large diamond in the middle. Hermione's eyes grew wide and she looked to Sirius who was watching them with a smile on his face. "Did you open any more clubs that you didn't tell me about? Or is business really that good?" The four laughed, and Narcissa turned to Hermione.

"Hermione, I know how close you and Sirius are, he's told me many times what you've done for him, and I know that we will continue to grow closer than we have on the few occasions we've seen each other. Would you do me the honor of by being my maid of honor?"

Hermione laughed and hugged Narcissa again, "Of course, I would be delighted to."

Draco and Sirius were having a similar conversation.

"You know, Draco," Sirius started, looking back at Draco after looking at Narcissa's ring and Hermione's comment, "Were it any other way, I would have asked Harry to do this, but as it is, I was hoping that you would be my best man at the wedding. Would you be willing to do that?"

Draco was momentarily speechless. He had never thought that Sirius would have asked him to be his best man, Potter seemed the likely choice, and if not Potter then Lupin.

"Draco?"

"Wha-Oh! Of course! I'd be honored."

o 

A few minutes later found the three teenagers walking down the halls before they split off to their separate rooms to change. Harry was going to come meet the two of them before they went to join the party upstairs.

Hermione went into her room and took off her shoes then her dress, leaving her in only her black, strapless bra and matching panties. She changed quickly into a short jean skirt and an emerald green tank top. Leaving her hair and make up as it was, she left the room to find Harry and Draco talking quietly about the engagement.

"I'm just glad he told me," Harry said. They saw Hermione come out of her room and Draco offered his left arm and Harry offered his right. Grinning, Hermione took each proffered arm. The three then made their way up to the top floor of the Manor

o 

A few moments later the three came up the last steps into the dim room. They were almost bowled over by the wave of sound that hit them once they had passed through the barrier of the sound charm. Spotting them, Padma immediately came over to them, and Harry detached himself from Hermione and joined her as she led him to the dance floor.

"You know," Draco said, into Hermione's ear, "I think Padma has the right idea. Wanna dance?"

Hermione grinned at him and led him over to the dance floor and started moving to the music. She still held onto his hand and used it to pull him up behind her. He extricated his hand from hers and put both hands on her hips starting to dance with her. He turned her around so that he could see her face, it was just too tempting, he couldn't resist so he leaned his head down and kissed her.

After a few minutes, Hermione pulled away. "As much as I'm enjoying this, and believe me, I am, we can do this anytime. Why don't we go take advantage of your pool?"

Draco looked at her, and the mischievous look in her eye, "Why? What are you up to?"

"Nothing at all. Are you going to join me? Or do I have to swim by myself?"

She pouted as she walked away from him. She reached to the bottom of her tank top and pulled it off over her head as she walked away from him. He watched her backside sway from side to side then up her back as her shirt revealed bare skin to him. He saw that her bathing suit consisted of a strapless top that ended a few inches above her navel, tight enough that it fit like a second skin. She reached the edge of the pool and slipped out of her flip flops and her skirt, revealing a pair of low bikini bottoms. The midnight blue suit had silver studs around the seams. She turned to Draco and he realized that during their kiss, his fingers had caused some of her hair to come loose from her braided crown. It had the effect of making her look more beautiful than ever.

"Coming?"

"Of course," he said, walking over to her and stripping off his shirt, leaving him in only his swim trunks.

He had barely put his shirt down when he felt a body collide with his own and his feet leave the solid floor. He wrapped his arms around Hermione so that she would go in with him. As soon as they were under the water he felt her slide up his body and away from him, pushing him down with her feet.

Laughing, Hermione swan to the other side of the pool as fast as she could. Draco surfaced three seconds after she reached the edge. He looked at her, confused.

"How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Swim that far that fast. I mean it only took you a few seconds."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you just swam the length of this pool, and you have to admit, this is a pretty long pool, in the span of about two or three seconds. What's up with that?"

"I don't know. I didn't know that I was going that fast. I just…swam," she shrugged. A thought occurred to her, "Excuse me, Draco. I'll be right back."

She hurried out of the pool and conjured a wrap that she put around her waist and quickly left the pool, getting lost in the group of students.

Draco barely saw her move before she was gone.

**A/N:** There you are, new chapter. Woot! Thanks for all the reviews. Hope you enjoy it. I would love to hear from you! Hint hint!

Kat


	35. Wicked

**A/N:** The book that is quoted in here is _Wicked_, it's really good! And I realize that it is highly unlikely to see this car on London streets, but I adore this car and I wanted to put it in here somehow, so ha! My story! Go read it! **Don't give me reviews about things that aren't likely in this chapter because I'm from AMERICA I'm not British, I don't know what's likely or not! **Oh, and I tried to keep clothing descriptions to a minimum, I realize I overdid it last time. Thank you. Enjoy.

**The Gryffindor Drummer: **Thanks for your review, and I'm glad you still like it! Enjoy!

**Shadow's tears:** Yeah, I know it is kinda weird, but I'd have to go back and change it all around, and I don't really feel like it. Now when you said that you liked when Sirius picked Draco over Harry, was that sarcasm? I couldn't tell, because you put the whole his own godson thing. Anywho, enjoy the chappy!

**Blueskyshymoon08:** I don't care what your review is, I love them, and I'll take them however I get them! Whoo-hoo!

**Hermione Charlotte Granger:** What was what? You confused me.

**Sabrina:** YES I DO KNOW! Sorry, it's just that I already know that, and its been pointed out, and if you had read the A/N you would have seen that I did know because I addressed that in the A/N. Besides, lots of the pureblood families married into other ones to stay pure. Well, sorry about that, it's just frustrating, I'm glad that you like it, I really am. Thanks for the review and enjoy!

**Cammy77:** I'm glad you love it! Yea! Woot! Enjoy!

**Harrypotterluvr1:** Yay! I'm so happy you love it so much! Woo-hoo!

**Secretspells311:** Yeah, I didn't realized how boring it was until I reread it after posting. Sorry! I love your pureblood reasoning! Go you! I don't mind the long review! Loved it! Real structural criticism, finally! Enjoy!

**Summer:** Am I excited for the movie! What kind of question is that? Of course I am! I can't wait! The freaky thing? Emma Watson looks almost identical to one of my oldest friends. I love her books and I love the fourth one, but it's actually not my favorite. I'd have to say that the third one is my favorite followed by a tie between four, five and six. I don't know. It's just that I love the overall third one where I just love most parts of those other three. Thanks for your review! Enjoy!

**Sariah17:** Thanks so much! Enjoy!

**Lilpuppy3:** I'll keep writing if you keep reviewing. Deal?

**Previously**

She hurried out of the pool and conjured a wrap that she put around her waist and quickly left the pool, getting lost in the group of students.

Draco barely saw her move before she was gone.

**Chapter Thirty-Five**

**Wicked**

"'Don't you know affection when you see it?' scoffed Elphaba. 'I love Nessie. She's a pain in the neck, she's intolerably righteous, she's a nasty piece of work. I'm _devoted _to her.'

'She'll be the Eminent Thropp.'

'Better she than I,' said Elphaba dryly. 'For one thing, she has great taste in shoes.'"

Hermione laughed aloud, putting her book down in front of her. She looked around at the beautiful grounds surrounding her. She had positioned herself under a tree, close enough that if she sat up she could easily move to sit up against the tree, but was still able to ask in the sun while lying on her stomach. No matter how much she changed, family, looks or interests, she would always love a good read. So, she had come out here to find a quiet place that she could be alone and read awhile and tan a little. She closed her eyes and smiled into the sun warming her face, arms, legs and back. Lying as she was, wearing her favorite pair of jean shorts and her bikini top, sun beating down upon her, she was getting rather hot.

A short while later, Ginny came outside and looked around, spotting Hermione, she walked over to her and sat up against the tree. Hermione put up a finger and said, "Just a sec. Let me finish this paragraph."

"…Fiyero wondered, looking at the manager with new eyes. Or is it just that the world unwraps itself to you, again and again, as soon as you are ready to see it anew?"

Hermione looked up and smiled, "Hey, Gin!"

"Hey! Whatcha readin'?"

"It's a muggle book called _Wicked_. Did you ever see the Wizard of Oz?"

"Yeah, last year."

"Well, it's about the Wicked Witch of the West and how she's not really evil. It's a really good book. Very well written. They also made it into a musical on Broadway. I'm hoping to get to see it when I go to America. Mum said I could go after I graduate," she explained. She sat up and moved next to Ginny, " So, what's up?"

"Not a whole lot. I just came out to tell you that we're about to have lunch. And then we have that appointment at the spa that you mentioned. I also believe that there is a small mall, I love that that rhymes," Ginny grinned, "and if we leave a little early we could do a little shopping."

Hermione laughed and stood, holding out a helping hand for Ginny. "Ginny Weasley, I believe that you are speaking my language."

o 

"You know one of the best perks of being the daughter of rich wizards, especially a daughter who hasn't been with her parents for the past sixteen years?"

"What?"

Hermione grinned once again as they stepped out of The Leaky Cauldron into muggle London. "They understand that I still love aspects of the muggle world, like driving, and were willing to buy me a few presents, like a car." She pulled out a set of keys and walked over to a car. "Not only were they willing to buy me a car, but they were willing to get me one from the states. I saw this car on the most recent season of Alias, you know," she gestured with her hands like it was a given.

"The one that you charmed your TV to show whenever you want?" Ginny asked while Hermione clapped her hands together in front of her while whistling and looking anywhere but at Ginny.

"Yeah, that one. Well, I saw it on there and fell in love with it. And when my parents said I could have any car I wanted, well," she shrugged. "Hop in. Of course, there were a few minor magical changes made to it. The normal, larger trunk, radio plays whatever we want with no commercials." Ginny nodded approvingly. "Shall we get going?"

Hermione started the car and they sped out of the alley and onto the streets of London. About twenty minutes later they arrived at the spa and headed in for hours of relaxation and pampering.

o 

"Oh Merlin, I don't think I've ever felt this good," Ginny said as she slumped into the Mustang after hours of being pampered.

"Me neither, but let me just get the car started so we can have a little warmth," Hermione agreed, sinking back into her seat as well. Looking contented, Hermione started the car. She sighed and looked at Ginny. She noticed that Ginny had a thoughtful look on her face. "What is it, Gin?"

"Well, I just remembered something."

"What?"

"Last night, Draco came and told me about you moving so fast he could barely see you. And you've done it today a couple times. Like just now, you had turned the car on before you finished the sentence. What's going on?" She looked at Hermione, beseeching.

"Do you remember when I told you what Selene told me? About being a Goddess?"

"Yeah, how could I not?"

"Well, it's just a manifestation of one of Hermes more well known powers. Speed."

"Okay, that makes a little sense. But then why haven't any powers from Artemis and Isis made themselves known?"

"I don't really know. But from what Selene has said, it took time for her powers to come to her, and she doesn't have many. She's got more of a guardian kind of thing going. She also said that, considering the deities that are part of my aura, for a while there might be more strong instincts or urges than powers. For her, she just started wanting to spend more time up at night, needing less sleep, and to spend more time in the moonlight. Weird things out of context, but once she knew the reason for them, they made more sense."

"And have you been having strange urges or instincts?"

"Well, kinda. I mean, I have been spending a little bit of time in the Forbidden Forest, don't look at me like that, I can take care of myself," she said, seeing Ginny's look of trepidation. "Besides, I've been learning how to use a bow and arrow. I can't really explain how, but it seems to be coming to me naturally for the most part. So I have archery and magic on my side."

"Okay," Ginny said, relunctantly. "I want to go with you next time."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," she answered definitively. "I'm sure."

"All right. Next time I go out, you can come with me."

They drove on in comfortable silence until they reached Malfoy Manor.

o 

"Wow, Hermione, you look gorgeous."

Hermione was in a black ball gown with silver accents. A black satin corset and full skirt flattered her figure. She had her silky black hair piled on top of her head and wore a simple silver chain with a small diamond for jewelry. She smiled at Draco's compliment.

"Thank you, you look pretty handsome yourself."

Draco smirked, "I'm always handsome."

"Of course you are," Hermione answered, rolling her eyes. She took the arm he offered her and the two walked to the top of the main staircase where a line had sprung.

Ginny was wearing a snug silver halter dress and was on Blaise's arm. The two of them were talking with Harry and Padma, who was wearing a slinky black velvet dress.

"Hermione, you look amazing!" both Ginny and Padma gushed.

"Thanks you guys, you look gorgeous, too."

"You have to see Selene's dress, Hermione," Padma said. "It's beautiful. It's this black corset bodice with a full white skirt. You'd love it!"

"I see it, she's right over there," Mione responded, pointing in Selene's direction.

The rest of the night was filled with beautiful dresses, chatting (or gossiping rather, it depended on who you talked to) and dancing. Draco and Hermione danced the night away, occasionally dancing with other partners. Mione noticed that Blaise and Ginny were having a wonderful time, Harry and Padma were no where to be found, Ron and Aella were in the midst of a heated discussion which ended with them in position that reminded Hermione forcibly of the year before and "Won-won". Sirius and Narcissa approached them late in the evening.

"Draco?"

"Hello, mum," he said, embracing her. "You look wonderful."

"Thank you, Draco," she said. Hermione and Sirius had gone off into their own little chat. "I assume you would like to get out of your stuff clothes and go have your Hogwarts party?"

"You assume correctly."

Narcissa laughed, "Well, what are you waiting for?"  
"Your permission," Draco smiled.

"Wait a second. Somebody pinch me, I didn't mean in actuality, Sirius. My son waiting for my permission before he goes off to do what he wants? What has the world come to?" she put her hand to her forehead and pretended to faint.

"I take that as your permission?" Draco asked, laughing at her antics. It had been a long time since his mother had been happy. And he had never seen her this happy.

"Go, have fun."

o 

The party that night was much the same as the night before. However, the girls who had worn ball gowns had just performed severing charms on their dresses, severing the bodice from the skirt and put on jeans.

Friends danced and talked the night away until it was in the early hours of the morning.

o 

"Why do they do this to us?" Ginny said the next morning after Hermione received an owl from Dumbledore telling them that there were indeed classes that day. "It's not fair. Why can't we just have this time off?"

"Because it's not technically the holidays yet," Hermione answered promptly.

"That was a rhetorical question, Mione."

"Oh, sorry," she blushed.

"Well, what class is it?"

"Defense Against the Dark Arts. Rei said something about non-magical combat when I talked to him."

"I still find it weird that you know our Professor well enough to have a nickname for him," Blaise said, shaking his head.

Hermione laughed, 'Well, I just can't call him 'Professor Andreios' because that's just _too_ weird for me," she looked at her watch and gave a start.

"What is is?"

"We have to be there in half an hour."

"What!"

"Yeah. Class starts in half an hour."

Ginny stood up so fast that she knocked her chair backwards. "I have to get packed," she said, and picking up the chair, practically flew out of the room.

o 

"I know you are all probably tired from last night's activities," Professor Andreios said at the beginning of the class. "But I ask you to only pay attention. You will not need to take any notes or even participate. Class today will be shorter than usual." Everyone let out a breath of relief. "I am going to pick one or two of you to come up here and engage in physical combat with me."

Hermione slumped, knowing that it was she he was going to pick. He had taught her to fight during the summers.

**A/N:** Alrighty, well there it is. I hope you like it, review. And I was wondering if anyone wanted to beta for me. If you're interested, just let me know in your review. Thanks!

Kat


	36. Sparring

**A/N:** Okay, so I got NO offers to beta, that kinda got me down a little,  but oh well. Oh, any Alias fans? You might recognize bits of the fight scene from one in third season, when she fights herself in the episode "Concious".

**Steelo:** Yeah, I'll beta for your other story too! I love both of em so far! Thanks for the review!

**Harrypotterluvr1:** Thanks! Here, just for you!

**Shadow's tears:** okay! Thanks! I hope you like the chapter.

**The Gryffindor Drummer:** Thank you, hope you like.

**Hollyy:** Yay! A new reviewer! Woo hoo! I'm glad you like it so much. Enjoy!

**Cheebabomb:** You're very welcome, I love your story! Thanks for yours, hehe!

**Hermione Charlotte Granger:** I was hoping some people would enjoy a little more…I don't know, something else.

**D-daygirl:** I'm glad people are into the idea of combat, maybe I'll put a little more into it, hint hint! Thanks!

**DoNtLetMeGetMe:** Yes, it does sound much better that way. Thank you for your review!

**Sirusblackshottie:** I did, I did!

**Draconharrysgirl:** I thought about it, but I don't know what I would do for that, or it could be the other way around to change it up a bit! Got any ideas? I would love to hear them! Thanks for the review!

**Previously**

"I know you are all probably tired from last night's activities," Professor Andreios said at the beginning of the class. "But I ask you to only pay attention. You will not need to take any notes or even participate. Class today will be shorter than usual." Everyone let out a breath of relief. "I am going to pick one or two of you to come up here and engage in physical combat with me."

Hermione slumped, knowing that it was she he was going to pick. He had taught her to fight during the summers.

**Chapter Thirty-Six**

**Sparring**

"As most of you know, you can't always use magic in a duel. Sometimes your wand will get knocked out of your hand, or if your luck is really bad, it might get snapped and all you'll be left with is your body. Some spells can be ducked, but how about when you _and _your adversary are both wandless? You can be prepared to _beat the shit_ out of them," he said. "Now, Hermione, if you would like to come up here and help me with a demonstration…"

Hermione sighed and got out of her seat and walked towards the front of the classroom. She took off her outer robes to reveal the black velour track pants and white tank she was wearing. She stood about ten feet across from him, waiting for him to strike, in a defensive pose.

He lunged. In a flash she had pulled her right arm back and thrust the heel of her palm into his nose as he reached her. As one, the class gasped as Andreios put a hand to his face. Hermione smirked at him as he looked up at her.

"I didn't teach you that," he commented, drawing out his wand and reparing his nose with a wave of his wand.

"No, you didn't. That I learned from a movie," she said, grinning.

He rolled his eyes, "Okay, well, what I'm going for is something a little more complicated, do ya think you could do that?"

"Sure. Ready?"

Before he could answer she swung with her right fist. He blocked it with his left forearm and returned her swing with a swing from his own right. Ducking his arm and turning her body towards the right (disengaging her arm from his as she did so) ending up directly in front of him, she brought her left fist down hard so that it would have connected with his groin had he not spun backwards to the left. 2

Finishing the turn, coming back to his original position, he brought his right arm to wrap around Hermione's throat. The path of his arm was impeded as she brought her right arm up to stop it. She jabbed back with her left fist, into his face, through the space between her head and their locked arms. He threw his head back to avoid the punch and the two broke away to their original position, breathing a little harder.

Andreios moved first again, spinning backwards and bringing his foot out to connect with her head. She brought her left arm up to block the kick. In one quick move she had turned her left arm down, forcing his leg to the ground and sprung up from the right to swing at him again. He backed away from her fist and she pulled back to swing with her left, which he caught with his right arm and jabbed at her face, making contact, though it didn't seem to do any damage. Hermione recovered quickly and spun around to bring her right elbow into his stomach, surprising him.

Using his surprise, she twisted her right arm to put her palm on his stomach and brought her left hand to grasp the back of his neck and, surprising the entire class, flipped him onto his back.

Andreios recovered, they lunged at the same time, Andreios swinging with his left, Hermione ducking under his arm and catching him in the stomach, though it didn't seem to faze him. She brought her left arm around and was blocked by Andreios' left catching it and raising it so he could deliver an answering blow to her stomach, then to her face. She stumbled back and doged the next right he threw at her, bringing her right arm under his and bringing her left hand to her back. She brought her knee up to his stomach and spun him around.

He used the momentum and the nearby wall to get away from her. He kicked to the left, almost catching her in the chest, but she turned her body and caught it, bringing her right leg up in return and knocking him back a step. Before he could return a blow, Hermione had gone into a double back-handspring. By the time he recovered, she was far enough away from him to be out of reach and she positioned herself in a defensive stance.

Andreios nodded to her and the class broke into applause. Breathing heavily, Andreios walked over to her. "Well done, Hermione! 20 points to Gryffindor!" He added in an undertone, "I want to talk to you after class." Addressing the class again, "For the rest of the term we will be learning physical combat and we will also be having sparring sessions. These will provide you with practice and a way to gauge your progress. Eventually, when we begin the sparring sessions, we will split into four groups. I'll go into more detail when we get there. You guys can all go now," he said.

Hermione stayed where she was, nodding to Ginny to go on when she looked at her questioningly. She perched herself on the edge of a nearby desk.

"You've been practicing," Rei commented when the room had emptied.

Hermione smiled. "Of course I have. How else do you think I stay in such good shape?" Laughing, she continued more seriously, "It's become an important part of my life. Ever since the Final Battle when it saved my life, I've taken it to a higher level."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I conjured a figure, that looked like you, and fought like you. When I bested it eventually, I added to its ability just a little bit. I added moves that I'd seen from TV shows and movies and even books. And that's just when I couldn't spar with you or Sirius."

"Wow, I'm impressed. I thought you might be better than me by now, but you were never able to beat me that fast before," they both laughed. Turning towards his desk he opened a drawer and pulled out a small gift bag. "This is for you," he said, handing it to her, "it's sort of a congratulatory gift for becoming Head Girl, and it seems very fitting now that you just beat me," he chuckled.

She looked at him, curiously. Picking the tissue paper out of the bag she saw a small wooden box. The design on it was simple but elegant, with a small curling design around the edges of it. She looked up at him in amazement and he laughed.

"That's not even the actual gift. But yes, I know, it's beautiful. Open it."

Opening the box she found a long strand of silver beads. She pulled them out and ran them through her hands. Holding her arms out, elbows locked, at 135 degree angles, the strand of beads hung a little loosely between her hands.

"They're warrior beads. Long ago you had to be the best fighter in your village to wear them."

"I know what they are," Hermione said, smirking.

"What? How?"

"Remember that movie I made you watch, _Elektra_?"

"Oh, yeah. Never mind. I forgot that you were the one I saw that with. That is where I got the idea," he said.

Hermione wound the beads around her wrist and gave Andreios a hug. "Thank you, I love them!"

"I knew you would. Now get going, or you're going to miss lunch. I'll see you later."

"Bye!" she yelled over her should as she ran out the door, leaving Andreios chuckling behind her.

o 

"I'm so glad that we only had one class today," Ginny was saying as Hermione joined her at lunch. "What did Professor Andreios want?"

"Oh, Rei had a gift for me, not Professor to student, as friend to friend."

"Really? What for? What is it?"

"Warrior beads for becoming Head Girl," she answered, showing Ginny the beads.

"Wow, those are gorgeous."

"Yeah. So, we have Quidditch tryouts after lunch, but after that we have the rest of the day to ourselves, right?"

"Yup. What do you want to do?"

"I think I'm gonna just have some 'me time'. Do you mind?"

"Not at all, I was actually going to see if Blaise wanted to hang out."

Hermione grinned, finding the perfect opportunity to start in on Ginny. "So, about you two…"

"Don't even try it," Ginny laughed, getting up.

"Whaddya mean?" Hermione asked, following her out of the Great Hall.

"I mean, you're not going to get anything out of me other than, 'he's a great guy, I really like him and he's a really good kisser'. That's it. Nothing else."

"Okay. Fine," Hermione mumbled. They walked the rest of the way to the Gryffindor common room silently.

Hermione waited for Ginny to change before heading to the Head's dorms to grab their brooms. Ginny had taken up the offer to have her broom in the Head's dorms for safe-keeping gratefully. After Hermione changed, they headed down to the Quidditch pitch where Harry and Ron were waiting with a couple of others.

**A/N:** Very very short, I know. But I wanted to get this up for you all. Today is my birthday, it's a gift from me to you! Sweet Sixteen! Woot! And again, **does anyone want to beta for me?**

Kat


	37. Naughty Girls

**A/N:** I just want to say thank you to all of you who wished me a happy birthday:-D And to everyone who did, I had a wonderful b-day! My sister got me tickets to see Switchfoot and when we got there this guy gave us passes to meet the band and I got all their autographs and they all wished me happy birthday! And I also got the autographs of the stars of the Phantom of the Opera, which was amazing by the way! And for the offers to beta.

**DoNtLetMeGetMe:** Thanks for the greetings and the review!

**Sariah17:** Thanks!

**XXWitchXx:** I'm sure there wouldn't be MORE mistakes. Just different ones, Hehehe! Thanks for the b-day wishes.

**Steelo:** Thanks for the happy birthday, and yeah I had my day planned. My fam went out to breakfast and then my sister and I made a chocolate cheesecake. My mom, my sis and I went to see Must Love Dogs, great movie by the way, and then we went shopping. Fun fun! We went to dinner and then had the cheesecake, delicious! Nigella Lawson knows what she's doing, Hehehe!

**SeDuCtiVe: **I adore Alias! I've finally got my sister hooked! I've only been trying to get her to watch it for ages. As for the season finale, I screamed and almost cried. I was so pissed, still am. Why couldn't they have left Vaughn alone? He was so perfect. And now they've ruined my favorite TV couple and is he gonna die? He can't die! Is he gonna be paralyzed, what? Grrr! Do you know when it starts up again?

**Maggie:** Thanks for your review!

**Harrypotterluvr1:** Thank you, thank you. I hope you found my email helpful.

**Shadow's tears:** Thanks!

**Rainstorm:** Thank you! Enjoy!

**Hermione Charlotte Granger:** Thanks for your offer to beta, I appreciate it. But you didn't give me your email and it wasn't on your profile, just FYI. I hope you like this chapter.

**Arwenundomiel021:** Thanks for the offer. I hope you like this chapter. Oh and you should check your profile because your email wasn't on it.

**MOviAnGel:** Thanks for the offer, and I'm glad you love it. Thanks for the happy b-day!

**Jade-eye Halliwell:** I like your pen name, it wouldn't have anything to do with Charmed would it? Thanks for the b-day greetings, enjoy the chapter!

**Previously**

Hermione waited for Ginny to change before heading to the Head's dorms to grab their brooms. Ginny had taken up the offer to have her broom in the Head's dorms for safekeeping gratefully. After Hermione changed, they headed down to the Quidditch pitch where Harry and Ron were waiting with a couple of others.

**Chapter Thirty Seven**

**Naughty Girls**

Flying had become something Hermione loved and she always looked forward to Quidditch. Today she was to try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. She was going out for the position of Chaser, along with Ginny and several others.

"Hey, Mione, Ginny," Harry called as he saw them walking onto the pitch. "You guys area little early. Tryouts don't start for another 15 minutes."

"Yeah, we know. We wanted to just fly for a little before they start."

Hermione and Ginny mounted their brooms and zoomed around the pitch. They hovered a little to watch who was coming out for the team. Harry, of course, already filled Seeker position. For Keeper, it seemed there was only Ron. The Creevey brothers were going out for Beaters; they had decided that they wanted to be the new Weasley twins- pranksters to the end as well as beaters on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. However, their legacy had yet to really start. There were a couple other people there, including the beaters from last year, but Hermione had never seen the brothers fly before, so she didn't know what the outcome would be. Along with Ginny and herself, there were only a total of five people going out for the position of chaser. Romilda Vane, who, even though she knew Harry was not remotely interested, seemed to still follow him around, and try to slip him love potions on occasions and was now here to try to join the team to be around him even more. There was a third year boy whose name she did not know and Demelza Robins who had been on the team the year before.

All of them knew that Harry was not likely to drop people from the year before so those going out for chaser, other than Ginny and Demelza, knew that it was really like there was only one open spot.

Harry blew on his whistle and the tryouts began.

o 

That night there was a huge party for the new Gryffindor team. The roster was as follows:

Seeker-Harry Potter

Chasers-Ginevra Weasley, Hermione Zabini, Demelza Robins

Beaters-Collin Creevey, Dennis Creevey

Keeper-Ronald Weasley

Hermione had been surprised at the Creevey brothers' ability to fly. She had been under the impression that they were just doing it for kicks, but they had genuinely wanted to be on the team. The rest of the team came as no surprise to anyone.

Looking around, Hermione felt like there was someone missing. She thought and wondered where Draco was. Then she remembered that he wasn't a Gryffindor. She got up and wandered over to the portrait hole. As she reached it she saw someone else who was inching ever so slightly towards the door, looking determined to leave inconspicuously. Ginny.

"Whatcha doing, Gin?" Hermione asked, coming up behind her.

Ginny jumped and spun around to face Hermione. "Nothin," she lied unconvincingly.

Hermione smiled. "Let's go find Draco and Blaise."

Ginny's face lit up and she hooked her arms with Hermione's and started skipping out of the portrait and down the hall. They checked the Head's Dorms first but there was no sign of either one of them. Ginny looked at Hermione questioningly.

"Where are they?"

"I think I know," Hermione said, dragging Ginny out of the room.

They traveled down several flights of stairs until they reached the dungeons. Instead of giving the wall the Slytherin password, Hermione gave it the password for the Head's Dorms. "Chaos". The wall slid open to reveal the Slytherin common room.

There were green leather couches in the center of the room, though they looked as though they had been pushed around by all the dancing bodies. Hermione saw that there were people on the couches. Some sitting, observing the festivities others making out. The pounding beat was making its way through Hermione's body, begging her to join it. She could tell it was doing the same thing to Ginny. She scanned the crowd again and saw Draco standing to the side, watching. Blaise was with him. She pointed them out to Ginny with a rather evil smile. She leaned over, whispering something in Ginny's ear, causing her to sprout an identical evil smile and nod. She started to move, but Hermione caught Ginny's arm.

She looked around at the girls surrounding them and their clothes. Then she waved her wand over their plain jeans and tees which were instantly transformed. Ginny's jeans had become a very tight and low and her tee had been cut off right below her breasts, showing a lot of stomach. the sleeve had lengthened, slightly baggy against her thin arms as they fell to her wrists. Hermione's jeans had become a little looser and now hung on her hips. They had also ripped themselves in so many places it seemed they were baring more skin than they covered. Her tee had turned into a skin tight, low cut, leather halter. It showed off her cleavage and much of her lower abdomen. She put the tip of her wand in the middle of her scalp and sharply brought it up. As she did so, red streaks bloomed from the front pieces of her hair, framing her face in red then black. Ginny nodded appreciatively. They started to implement their plan once finished.

Dancing their way to the middle of the crowd, they then worked their ways over to the side of the room where Draco and Blaise stood. They didn't look at them or go to the edge of the floor, but stayed in the thick of things. A new song started, one neither girl recognized, but it was good for grinding. They smirked evil at each other and started to grind, moving to the beat. Guys around them stopped to stare. One or two tried to join in or pull the girls apart, but to no avail. When enough people were stopped, two boys standing on the sideline glanced over at the crowd of unmoving people. There seemed to be two girls in the center of it.

Draco looked at Blaise, who nodded. They made their way over to the crowd and stepped through easily. The sight before them made the boys shiver. It was easily one of the hottest things either one had ever seen. Two girls were dancing together, grinding into one another, sometimes drawing apart, or turning to be back to back. They were both rather sweaty and their stomachs were glistening. Black hair with red streaks hung over one face while scarlet hair was whipped across the other, making it impossible to identify either girl. The two split apart, still dancing and apparently unaware as to the effects of their dancing, particularly on the male population.

The red head slid her hands down her stomach and snapped her head to the left, making her sweaty hair whip her face. As she moved her hands and arms above her head, moving her hair with her, Blaise spotted something- two things, to be exact. The first was a black mark on the inside of her wrist. The second was the tattoo on the lower back. His mouth dropped open. It was Ginny. Ginny was dancing like that. He looked at the other girl and it hit him. If Ginny was here, so was…

As all of this was happening, the girl with black and red hair crouched, and, in a very fast, seamless movement, put her knees to the floor and bent backwards, touching her head to the ground. As soon as she did this, she came forward and thrust her backside into the air, straightening her legs. She soon followed it up, flipping her hair back. Draco saw the tattoo on her back and neck. He smirked and thought.

Draco started moving to the beat then moved behind Hermione, putting his hands on her hips and moving their bodies closer together. Blaise looked to Draco, but couldn't see him, then looked at Hermione, who had just spun around and found Draco smirking at her, she smirked back. He shook his head and went to join Ginny.

He caught her hands in the air and said, "Hello, gorgeous." She grinned to herself then pressed her ass against him, causing him to loose his smugness and any following train of thought. Hermione and Draco's legs were interlocked and they were pressed against each other, kissing passionately as they danced.

o 

A while later, the four of them were sitting on one of the couches, talking when Draco noticed the beads on Hermione's wrist.

"What's that?"

"What's what?"

"The thing on your wrist?"

"Oh, they're warrior beads from Indonesia. Rei gave them to me as a late congratulatory gift."

Draco raised his eyebrows, secretly wondering if there had ever really been something between the two of them. He just couldn't shake the feeling.

Meanwhile, Hermione was hoping that no one would ask if something had ever happened between them. She didn't know what she would say. Would she deny it? Say that it hadn't happened? Somehow, to her, it seemed like that would be saying that she didn't trust her friends- which she did, implicitly. But for the moment she was safe.

No one saw the crow that had made its way into the common room and was now watching Hermione and Draco snuggle. If it could have, it would have sighed in resignation before flying off out a window.

**A/N:** Sorry this took so long, but there was a little writer's block then my internet was screwy. And I've heard that they're starting to delete stories where the author replies to reviews. Does anyone know if that is true? And just to let you all know, I'm working on a story about Harry returning to Godric's Hollow and there is a possibility of me writing a Phantom of the Opera one, if I get ticked off at the ending enough the next time I see it. We'll see, what do you think about that?

Kat


	38. Create a Date

**A/N:** Well, this certainly throws off my groove. I received confirmation that I can't respond to personal reviews anymore! Grrr! And just so my story doesn't get deleted, I'm going to repost my chapters without the reviews. But I will certainly answer reviews by email if you would like. Just let me know if you want me to. And make sure that you give me your email address. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I own almost nothing. Even the guy is from a book! Gah! Anybody know who he could be? And with regards to the lyrics near the end; they're from The Phantom of the Opera.

**Previously**

No one saw the crow that had made its way into the common room and was now watching Hermione and Draco snuggle. If it could have, it would have sighed in resignation before flying off out a window.

**Chapter Thirty-Eight**

**Create a Date**

Everyone had noticed the bizarre weather. The fall had been acting like the dead of winter and the winter was acting like fall. This was the reason that Quidditch had started so late in the school year. Because of it, Andreios had set up the sparring area outside. Hermione and Ginny were outside practicing the day after Christmas.

"I can't believe we start lessons tomorrow. It seems like the past 12 days went by really fast. They were kinda packed," Ginny grumbled, stretching.

"Yeah," Hermione said, "I know. They blew right by. I barely had time to register last night before it was over."

"Your dress was gorgeous last night."

"Yeah, I loved it," Hermione said, remembering her gown from last night. It had been a white bodice with red lacing up the back and some red embroidery on the front. The skirt had been full with some red accents thrown into it. Ginny had worn a white dress, too. Hers had been slinky and modest, except for the back. The back had a large circular section cut out of it. "Yours was, too."

They finished stretching and both girls got up. Hermione reached into the bag in the corner of the platform and withdrew a pair of fingerless gloves and two wraps. She tossed the cushy wraps to Ginny who just looked at her. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Are you telling me that you've never wrapped your knuckles?"

"Why would I?"

"To protect them."

"I can just heal them after."

"Yes, but you can go longer and won't have so much to heal if you wrap them. Besides, I charmed those to hold against more and they have a small healing charm so that it will start healing right away."

Ginny took the wraps and started to wrap them around her hand and wrist. Hermione watched her and stopped her before she got too far along.

"You're doing it wrong, here."

She wrapped it around the wrist after looping the end around her thumb. She wrapped it back up around her knuckles about three times before bringing it back down around her wrist. After a couple more rounds she started to wrap in between Ginny's fingers. A few minutes later she was done. Then she preceded to the other hand. Ginny flexed her hands when Hermione was done, marveling at the flexibility.

She looked at Hermione who didn't have any wraps. "What are you going to use?"

"I made these for myself," she answered, holding up a pair of strange gloves. They covered her hands and her fingers up to the middle. The area over her knuckles was covered with a gel padding. Hermione had charmed these as well as the wraps. They didn't work quite as well but she knew Ginny needed the wraps more than she did.

Once she was situated she conjured a figure that looked exactly like Andreios. Then she turned to Ginny and asked what she wanted her dummy to look like.

"Does it matter?"

"Well, no. But you may not want it to look like someone you like. I mean, I don't know if you want it to look like Blaise or me or one of your brothers. That way you can wail on one of us without getting in trouble," she smiled.

Ginny looked undecided, and looked at Hermione's. "Why does yours look like Professor Andreios?"

"Because he was the first one who taught me how to fight. I was able to conjure him to fight like the real Rei. Do you just want me to create someone out of thin air?"

"Yeah, I think I'll go with that one."

Hermione gave her a mischievous look and waved her wand in a complicated gesture. The figure that stood in front of Ginny took her breath away. Hermione just smirked. She had conjured a tall male with short, spiked, dirty blonde hair. His eyes were the same sapphire blue. He was a little bit taller than Ginny, making him roughly 6 foot. The clothing on his body consisted of a tight black wife-beater and a pair of black track pants. He did not move. Hermione walked over to Ginny and put a finger under her chin, pushing up, shutting her mouth and snapping her friend back to reality.

"Did you have to make him so hot?"

"Would you rather me make him ugly? Or female?" She waved her wand and the figure shortened, the hair lengthening and pulling back into a ponytail. The face rearranged slightly. But hair and eye color stayed the same as did her clothes.

Ginny pouted, "I didn't say I wanted you to change him."

"So sorry," Hermione laughed and changed the figure back. "Is this okay? Or are you going to try to date him?"

Ginny laughed, "Yeah, I think I can manage."

"Besides," Hermione shrugged, "in a minute all he'll do is fight with you. He won't even talk." As she said this she moved to the dummy and put her wand to his temple. He blinked. "Now, you can give him one of two commands, start or stop. When you say start, he'll basically attack you and when you tell him to stop, he will."

"Geez, Mione. They don't even teach that in school. Where did you learn to do that?"

Hermione blushed slightly, "Oh, well, I just combined a couple spells into one new one. And then I used the same idea as the pensive to put my thoughts into him. I just select the ones I want and you've got an interactive dummy to fight with. Have fun."

o 

"I'm sore, I'm tired and I'm sweaty," Ginny complained an hour later as they walked back in the castle in just in time for lunch to start.

Hermione got smiled mischievously, "Want to look 'hey, I'm hot and sweaty because I just worked out for an hour, but I can still manage to look sexy' instead of 'I just worked out for an hour and am hot, sweaty and tired'?"

"You need to ask?"

Grinning, Hermione took Ginny's hair out of its ponytail and straightened her hair with her wand, then made her flip her head over and mussed it a little. She waved her wand over Ginny's body to cool her off a little, taking a little bit of the flush out of her cheeks at the same time. Her loose track pants became snug, hugging her hips, showing off the inch of flesh above them.

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"So, was the whole bookworm thing the previous 5 1/2 years all a fake?"

Hermione laughed, "No, I just grew into my self-confidence these past two years. Why?"

"Well, even Parvati and Lavender wouldn't be able to do to me in an hour what you just did in seconds."

"That's because those two don't get the whole messy thing. And they don't understand the whole natural beauty thing."

Ginny laughed and watched as Hermione performed the same procedure on herself. She also untied the jacket around her waist and put it on over her sports bra, making sure that it didn't cover too much. "Ready?"

"We're fashionably late, right?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Good, let's go."

The two girls were about to push open the doors when the doors to the Entrance Hall opened and Andreios walked in. Hermione and Ginny whipped around at the sound. Andreios stopped dead at the sight of them and almost tripped over himself. He had a hard time trying not to let his jaw drop.

"I saw you guys practicing earlier. I just went down to see if you wanted any help, but you had already left."

"We didn't see you," Hermione said.

"I was walking around the grounds," he answered.

Ginny hated awkward silences and this one was no exception, plus she wasn't quite comfortable with the way her teacher was looking at Hermione. Hermione noticed his straying gaze and hugged her jacket around her. "Well, we better head into lunch before its over," she said and she and Ginny went into the Great Hall. Several heads turned, mostly male. Both Draco and Blaise looked over at them and their eyes widened at the sight before them. The girls tried not to laugh as they sauntered over to their table.

o 

"I am so tired," Hermione said that night.

Draco laughed, "You had a big day. I mean, whooping Potter's ass in Quidditch, somehow I never get tired of that."

Hermione giggled and snuggled into him. They were on one of the couches in the common room watching _The Phantom of the Opera_. Draco hadn't actually wanted to see it, but Hermione said he had to. He would never ever admit this, but he liked it. He also didn't mind that fact that Hermione's body was pressed against him. She shivered slightly.

"Cold?"

"Just a little," she answered. Without thinking she raised her hand slightly and turned her wrist in midair. Draco saw shimmering black surround her hand as she spoke an unknown command, it sounded like a spell, but it was none he had ever heard before. Immediately, they were lying underneath a comfortable black blanket.

"Hermione?"

"Hmm?" she asked sleepily.

Masquerade, paper faces on parade, 

_Hide your face so the world will never find you._

"What was that?"

"Hmm?"

"That spell. What was it?"

She looked up, as if to register what he was saying. As it sank in she realized, "I have no idea. It just came out. Why?"

"Well, I've never heard it before and your hand shimmered. Black." She groaned and got up, "Where are you going?"

"I have to go see Selene about this," she said, rushing out of the room. Seconds later she was fully dressed and back out in the common room. She kissed him and was out the portrait hole before he could say, "bye".

_You alone could make my song take flight,_

_It's over now, the music of the night._

o 

"Selene!"

"Hermione?" a very groggy Selene answered the door that Hermione was pounding on. "What is it?"

"We need to talk. About me. About Artemis, Isis and Hermes."

"Ah. Okay. Come on. Let's come out here," she said, leading her to the common room. She conjured blankets for them, to keep them warm in front of the fading fire. Despite the unusual weather the castle was still drafty at night. "Okay, what is it?"

"Which one did you say gave me the black part of my aura?"

"Isis. She was the Egyptian Goddess. She was one of the most powerful deities in Egyptian myth, if not the most powerful."

"Okay, because something really weird just happened." She preceded to tell Selene just what had happened.

"I am so sorry that I didn't talk with you more about this sooner. There will be times, especially when…you're at…extremes, like if your really tired or really hyped up, when aspects of the deities you…represent will manifest themselves. So this evening when you were really tired, and cold-the simplest way for me to say this is that Isis basically took over for a moment. But know that when I say, "take over" I don't mean that they will possess you or anything like that," Selene was getting frustrated, and couldn't seem to get the right words out.

"It's okay, Selene. Calm down. How about this? Since we never got a whole lot of time to talk about this, why don't we start from the beginning?"

Selene sighed in relief, "That would be so much easier."

They agreed that they would go somewhere else to talk because they knew that they would talk most of the night, and they wanted to be able to fall asleep where they were and not be woken up just hours later by people making lots of noise. So they decided to go to the Shack. Selene surprised Hermione my making a smooth transition into a shining white horse with a silver mane. The transformation was not the same as the one she went through. Hermione's transformations were more sudden than that. She made a mental note to ask about that as she saw Selene head over to the portrait hole.

They made their way out of the Ravenclaw common room, down the many flights of stairs, Selene's hoofs making no sounds at all while Hermione slunk behind her, her panther form blending in with the shadows. A little while later the girls reached the shack and relinquished their animal forms.

"Okay," Hermione said, "before we get started, I didn't know you were an Animagus. And you must have two forms because during class you turned into a raven, which, by the way, is very fitting for your house."

"Yeah, I know," Selene laughed. "Well, I'm not an Animagus. I don't know how to transform like you do. The horse is a part of Selene. White horses are what drove her chariot across the sky."

"Oh," Hermione said.

The girls walked into the family room. Hermione groaned when she saw that they had yet to replace the couch. She waved her wand the couch made squishing sounds as it reformed itself into a very comfortable looking futon. She smiled and made her way over there, flopping onto the futon. Selene laughed and conjured a couple blankets as Hermione conjured glasses of iced coffee. They settled in for a long talk.

**A/N:** I am so sorry that this took so long. Updates are going to take a little longer from now on. School and projects and stuff like that. Plus most Saturday's are going to be predominantly spent watching the Ohio State Buckeyes play football! Woo hoo! Go Buckeyes! There is going to be a lot of Mythology in the next chapter. I love you all! And I would love you even more if you review! Hint hint. Oh! And can anyone tell me who sings those lyrics and when?

Kat


	39. Lessons in Mythology

**A/N:** Okay, as I said, there is a lot of Mythology in this chapter. Mostly excerpts from books. It's from a lot of different books and such. I'm still sad that I can't respond to reviews; again, let me know if you would like a response by email. So thanks for all the reviews and keep 'em coming! And FF won't keep my excerpts italicized for some reason. Grrr.

Kat

**Previously**

The girls walked into the family room. Hermione groaned when she saw that they had yet to replace the couch. She waved her wand the couch made squishing sounds as it reformed itself into a very comfortable looking futon. She smiled and made her way over there, flopping onto the futon. Selene laughed and conjured a couple blankets as Hermione conjured glasses of iced coffee. They settled in for a long talk.

**Chapter Thirty-Nine**

**Lessons in Mythology**

"Okay, as you know, there are three different deities that are a part of you: Artemis, Hermes and Isis. Artemis and Hermes are Greek and Isis is Egyptian. You also know that each one contributes to your aura. Hermes, the gold around your knees and ankles; Artemis, the silver around your middle; and Isis, the black around your shoulders and head. Here, I brought these." She pulled out several books that she had managed to bring with her somehow. "I don't know enough about those three to tell you everything you need to know. So I thought these might help us understand some things. Here, take this one," she said, shoving a back at Hermione.

"It's a children's book."

"Yeah. They always have the simplest information; I thought we'd start there."

Hermione laughed and began to read.

"Hermes, the merriest of the Olympians, was the god of shepherds, travelers, merchants, thieves, and all others who lived by their wits. He never told a lie, but he didn't always tell the whole truth.

Zeus was so delighted with Hermes' ready wit that he made him the herald of the gods. He gave him a golden hat with winds, a pair of winged sandals, and a cape under which he could hide his magic tricks. In a flash he could move from place to place. He put glib words on the tongues of politicians and helped merchants close good bargains. He was as popular among mortals as he was among the gods."

"I'd hate to think that I don't tell the whole truth," Hermione said in an innocent voice.

Selene took one look at her and laughed, then began to read out of her book.

"Hermes; Messenger of Zeus. Herald of the Gods, son of Zeus and the nymph Maia. Hermes was born ready for action. As his mother slept in her cave, he slipped out of his cradle ad went looking for adventure.

_He saw a tortoise, killed it, and invented the lyre from its shell. As he taught himself to play the instrument, he spied his bother Apollo's cows – and stole them. Cunningly he swept away their hoof prints, and Apollo couldn't find them anywhere._

_When little Hermes confessed his trick, his brother was furious. But Hermes was shred. He knew Apollo loved music, and offered him the lyre for the cows. Apollo gave him the cows and more, and left happily with the lyre._

_Zeus was amused by his clever son but scolded him too. Hermes promised not to steal or lie again – not much, anyway – if Zeus gave him a throne on Olympus. Zeus couldn't resist. Hermes could talk anyone into anything._

Hermes grew up to be Zeus's personal messenger and helper. He traveled as fast as the wind on winged sandals. He guided souls of the dead to Hades and brought good luck to travelers all over the place."

"That's pretty much what was in my book. I just paraphrased a little. Toss me another book."

"Here's the last one," Selene said, handing her the book.

After a moment, Hermione spoke. "Most of this is stuff we just found out. But here's a little more. _Only Hermes was allowed free passage between Olympus, the Earth and the Underworld._ And that's all the new information."

"So the whole feeling lucky thing is from him, and the being speedy. That seems to be it. Oh, and possibly your brains and wit. Next; Artemis."

They started thumbing through the pages.

"Artemis. Goddess of the Moon, Wildlife, Hunting and Chastity. Daughter of Zeus and the goddess Leto. Twin sister of Apollo. Artemis was just minutes old when she helped with the birth of her twin, Apollo. Jealous Hera had been chasing their mother, Leto, all over the world. Artemis found her a safe place to rest, carried there by the South Wind. One day her pound father asked Artemis what presents she would like. Artemis knew exactly what she wanted. She asked for a bow and arrows like Apollo's, so they could hunt together. She asked for a band of nymphs for companions. She asked to stay young forever and never to have to marry. Zeus granted all her wishes – and more. Artemis was determined and fought for what she wanted. Her arrows stung, and she could cause suffering. But she loved animals and children and protected them."

"This one's got a lot in it. Oh, here's a different version of her wishes. Artemis, as a newborn goddess, went to her father, Zeus, and asked him to grant her a wish. She wanted to remain forever a wild young maiden hunting through the woods, and she asked him to promise never to make her marry. Zeus consented, and then she asked him for fifty lop-eared hounds to hunt with. Her father gave her all she asked, and she herself caught four hinds with golden antlers and harnessed them to her silver chariot. When the moon's magic light shone over echoing hills and wooded valleys, Artemis hunted with the nymphs and her hounds. After a wild hunt, the goddess loved to bathe in a quiet pool. Says here that a mortal hunter saw her bathing and she turned him into a deer and his own dogs attacked him. 'No mortal shall live to boast that he has seen Artemis bathing'. It looks like the only time Artemis ever fell in love was with a son of Poseidon, Orion. He was a modest hunter, a great hunter, one of the best. But he always gave Artemis the praise as the best hunter of them all. They became hunting buddies; Apollo got jealous and had him killed. Hermione? What's the matter?"

Selene looked at her friend. As soon as Hermione had heard the name Orion she had frozen. Draco. She decided she would tell Selene about this later.

"Nothing. Keep going."

"Oh, that's all from this book. There's one more."

"Okay, chuck it here. Virgin Goddess, yeah, we know that. She was given the wild areas outside city walls as her realm where she both hunted and protected the wild animals; she was also goddess of childbirth. I know there is a ton more about Artemis, it's just not in here."

"Okay, so that's where some of your self-confidence may come from, just because she was such an independent woman. And possibly the panther form is connected to it. Her love of wild animals. Have you ever used a bow and arrow?"

"Yeah, perfect. It would have killed anything."

"That's definitely from her," Selene said, laughing. "We'll go into her a little more later. Let's look at Isis."

They tossed aside the Greek Mythology books and picked up the Egyptian ones.

"Alrighty, here we go. Isis. Isis was more popular than any other goddess in the Egyptian pantheon. Nothing else of importance in this one. Ah, here's more. As wife of Osiris and mother of their child Horus, she became the most popular goddess of ancient Egypt. Isis the great enchantress wove magic charms and spells.

**Finding Re's Name**. Isis was determined to gain Re's power. To do so she had to discover the secret name of Red, known only to him. Re was by now a feeble, dribbling old man. Isis mixed some of his spittle into the earth to make a poisonous snake, which she left in the god's path. Sure enough, the snake bit Re. Poison spread through his body and he begged Isis to save him with her healing skills. To be cured, Isis told him, he must speak his secret name. Re tried many false names, but the poison gripped him in such agony that at last the god was forced to reveal his true name. Isis gained Re's secret and, with it, his great power.

"So that may be where you get some of your determination," Selene laughed, "and your cunning. No, I'm kidding, that's just you. But that may contribute to the amount of power in you."

"Yeah, maybe. Plus look at these depictions," Hermione said, showing Selene the book.

Hermione had seen many depictions of the goddess Isis, but never had she seen one like this. Some of Hermione's features looked like they could have come right out of the picture in front of them. The hair was the same color and length, pushed back behind the left ear, just as Hermione was wearing her hair. The eyes were sapphire, like Hermione's, which she knew was rare. There were white wings protruding from her back. They were white but they had some red hints in the feathers.

Hermione rubbed her face with her hands and yawned. "I'm getting even more confused as I start to understand. Does that make sense?"

"Yes," Selene said. "That's how it was for me. Parts of it were like, 'oh, so that's why' while other parts were, 'that makes no sense, what does that mean?'"

"That's where I am right now."

"Well, why don't we go through what we think so far."?

"Okay," Hermione said, straightening. "First we've got Hermes, who I am named for. Our guess is that the whole 'feeling lucky' occasions are from him, and the speediness. I think that was it."

"Yeah, now onto Artemis. So, there was the possibility that she is where some of your self-confidence is from. Then your panther form, her love of animals. Oh, and the archery that we talked about. Anything else?"

"I just had a thought," Hermione chimed in, "my secondary form is a winged horse. A Pegasus. As in from Greek Mythology."

"Very possible. And from Isis, I think we figured that you got a lot of your power from her, right? Your natural ability."

"Yup."

Selene looked at her, thinking, "I still find it curious that the goddesses who are part of you were polar opposites."

"How do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"Well, Artemis was a virgin goddess who only ever came close to even falling in love once. Whereas, Isis was a mother goddess. She had a child, Horus. And one husband who she went to great lengths to try to save. Well, I guess that's one thing they have in common, one love."

"I hadn't really thought of that," Hermione lied. The truth was, she had. It was one of the things that had worried her. Did it mean that she too would only know love once? And would it be taken from her as it had been taken from Artemis?

"Hermione?"

She shook herself mentally and looked at her friend, "Yeah?"

"You okay? You looked like…I don't know."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking," she smiled, and then yawned. "I'm exhausted. How long have we been doing this?"

"A couple hours," Selene answered.

"How come your not so tired?"

"Hermione. I'm the goddess of the moon. It comes with the territory."

"Oh, right. Well, I'm going to get some sleep. Do you sleep?"

"Yes, I just don't really get tired like most people, yourself included," she laughed. "Go to sleep. You need it."

"I do," Hermione admitted.



He was in agony. He had suffered injury many times before. But nothing like this. It was like fire in his very blood. He wanted it to end.

She tried to hold back the tears as she flew across the earth. It couldn't be true. But no one had even said anything to her, so how did she know it had happened? Why did she want to cry? There was a pain in her cold heart. What was it? She came to a sudden stand still as she came upon his body. This wasn't how she remembered him. His face was a mask of pain. She had never seen him look like that. He was always smiling at her, or concentrating on his quarry.

She took a few tentative steps toward him. When she reached him, she bent down and touched her arm. Almost as soon as contact was made she withdrew her hand quickly. He was much too cold. She didn't realize that she had started crying until she felt the moisture on her face. She tried to stop the flow but couldn't. Not knowing how to ease the pain she was feeling, she did the only thing she could. She got up and ran. The sandals would have worn through had she been mortal, but she wasn't. Her chiton would have caught around her ankles had she been a normal maiden, but she wasn't. She ran and ran, until she collided with her golden haired brother.



Hermione woke the next morning with the vague recollection of a dream. The more she thought about it, the less she remembered. There had been a dead man and a woman. She could not remember any details. She shook it off and looked around. She saw Selene was awake and noticed, for the first time, the delicious smell of coffee. Walking into the kitchen, stretching as she walked, she saw Selene standing in the kitchen, her hands around a steaming mug of coffee.

"You better have made me some," Hermione said, grinning sleepily at her friend.

Selene laughed and pointed to a mug on the counter, "Right there. How did you sleep?'

"Alright, I guess. I had this weird dream, but I don't really remember any of it. What?" she asked a second later, noticing that Selene had stopped mid-sip to stare at her.

"Let me know if you have any more dreams that you can't remember, they may be important."

"Okay, sure," Hermione shrugged.

They went back up to school a little later and went through their day without incident. That night, Hermione was restless; she could not get comfortable in her bed and could not sleep. She got up and went into the common room, taking her current book, Snakecharm, one she had read many times, and sprawled across the couch. She wasn't aware of when she fell asleep. But she must have, because she dreamed.

**A/N**: I'm really sorry it took me so long to update. I had most of this chapter written, it's just that school got really hectic really fast because I was sick and so have a shit load of work to make-up. Well, can you guess who was in the dream? And I have an idea of where this is going, but if you would like to give me specific ideas, that would be much appreciated! You can give me those ideas by REVIEWING! Woo hoo!


	40. Dreaming of You

**A/N:** Hey all! I just wanted to let you know that I posted the first chapter of The Hollow! And thanks for all the reviews! It still gets me down that I can't respond to reviews. Oh, well. Thanks to everyone and enjoy!

**Previously**

They went back up to school a little later and went through their day without incident. That night, Hermione was restless; she could not get comfortable in her bed and could not sleep. She got up and went into the common room, taking her current book, _Snakecharm,_ one she had read many times, and sprawled across the couch. She wasn't aware of when she fell asleep. But she must have, because she dreamed.

**Chapter Forty**

**Dreaming Of You**

"How could you do this to me?"

The woman from her dream the night before was standing in the middle of a beautiful room. It was simple, white marble, with silver laced throughout it. There were twelve thrones against one wall. The third from the left had a silver bow and quiver of silver arrows. The fourth had a lyre sitting upon it. The others were empty.

There was a man standing a few feet away. They were polar opposites. Yet there were resemblances. Though his hair was golden as the shining sun's where hers was as dark as night, though his skin was tanned from life in the sun where hers was pale from life in the night, they both had the same sapphire eyes.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

She laughed bitterly, shaking in suppressed rage. "I know it was you. Who else besides me would know how to defeat him? I have only one question to ask of you?" The man guesterd for her to ask, "Why? Why did you send it after him?" Her voice grew louder and the man grew angry that she could not see, "Why did you kill him?"

"Because you no longer had time for me! You would not hunt with me! You only hunted with him! He was the only one who ever saw you! I no longer held the right to say that I alone hunted with you! You gave that to a mere mortal. You pushed me aside and I missed you! Is that so wrong?"

Hearing this, the woman's heart melted. The fight drained out of her and she went to her brother and embraced him, "No, that is not wrong."

When she had released him, he took her hand, "Come, we will put him in the heavens so that everyone will remember him."

The woman smiled and followed her brother.



"Damn it," Hermione groaned as the sun hit her eyes. She sat up in the early morning sun and stretched. She got up, not bothering to redress, grabbing the closest robe to her. Pulling it on, she dashed out of the room at top speed with a piece of parchment and her quill. She reached the door to the owlry and sat on the floor outside and began to write.

_Selene_

_I had another dream that I don't remember. It was the same woman with a man she called her brother and they were arguing. That's all. Meet me down by the lake in an hour, I'll have breakfast._

_Hermione_

She rolled up the letter and went into the owlry. Looking around she spotted Nyx nearby. Nyx woke as Hermione neared her and stuck out a leg. Hermione smiled and attached the letter. Smoothing some of the glossy black feathers Hermione said, "Take this to Selene now, don't wait for the post. Peck her til she gets up and leaves." Nyx nipped the inside of her palm and took off hooting.

It was only after Nyx had disappeared from sight that Hermione looked down to see that she was nearly naked. Under the robe she was wearing, which, incidentily was Draco's, was only a pair of very short, very tight shorts and a white sports bra. She quickly wrapped the robe around herself and sprinted back to the common room, hoping she wouldn't meet anyone on her way.

As she walked in the portrait hole, Draco exited her room looking confused. "There you are? Where were-" he dropped off as he saw what she was wearing. She had let the robe fly behind her as she neared the common room leaving her scant clothing visible. Smirking, she sauntered over to him and put a finger under his chin and pushed up. His mouth closed with a snap. "Uh, where were you?"

"I had to send a letter. Thanks for the robe," she said as she shed it and tossed it to him, leaving him in her wake, staring at her backside.



Two hours later found Hermione and Selene walking up the steps to the Entrance Hall. "I just don't know," Hermione said for what felt like the millionth time. "I have no frickin' idea what they mean or who they're of."

"I get that, I was just thinking out loud. Hopefully you'll remember more. But until you do, we don't have much to go on."

"Yeah, what class have you got?"

"Potions," Selene made a face and Hermione laughed.

"Have fun. I've got Charms. I'll see ya later." The two girls headed their separate ways, Selene to the dungeons and Hermione up to the Charms corridor.

For some reason Hermione couldn't bring herself to tell anyone but Blaise what she had found out. Not her oldest friends, not her best friend and not her boyfriend. But the cousin she had just found months earlier. So, during Charms she filled him in. Unlike with anyone else she had talked to, she didn't leave out any details.

"And then there are these weird dreams that I've been getting and I can't remember them. And its so frustrating! It's like I know that they're important and so I'm actively trying to keep myself from finding out. Know what I mean," she asked, as she finished.

Blaise smiled sadly at her, "Unfortunately, I do."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, think about it for a minute, before I tell you. You kinda seem to be at the middle of all of this."

"How do you figure?" She couldn't see where he was going with this.

"Well, you have all these deities that are a part of you. You have a friend who has visions just like her namesake, and, by the way, we don't even know if that's all there is to her story. Then, there is Selene, another of your friends, who just happens to be in a similar boat as you with the goddess thing. Last but not least, Draco. You said that he told you that he was a descendent of Orion? The only man that Artemis ever loved?"

Hermione sighed and nodded. "Yeah."

"Don't you see it?"

"Not really. I mean, maybe we're just drawn to one another because of it."

"Or maybe they're drawn to you because of something we still don't know yet," Blaise said this with raised brows, as if suggesting something she should have thought of long ago.

Hermione just looked at her cousin before laughing. "You can't be serious! You honestly think this is all about some prophecy or legend or something?"

"Well," Blaise shrugged, "why not? It's not as if they don't exist. You're living proof of both of them. "

Hermione considered this. "I guess. Maybe. Probably not though."

Blaise rolled his eyes and spent the rest of the class trying to persuade her.

A few tables away, Draco was working with Ginny. Thanks to the "Muffliato" spell Hermione cast they couldn't hear a word that was being said. Draco sighed and Ginny glanced curiously at him.

"Alright," she said, turning to face him. "Spill."

He looked at her curiously, "Spill what?"

"Whatever it is that's bothering you."

"Oh," he said, looking down. "Is it that obvious?"

"Yeah, just a little."

"It's Hermione," he admitted. He was about to go on but noticed that Ginny had raised her hand to silence him.

"Hold on a sec," she said. She then waved her wand and muttered, "Muffliato."

"What was that?" Draco asked.

"It'll keep everyone from hearing our conversation. Harry taught it to me."

"Oh.

"Please continue."

"Well, as I said it's Hermione. Or more precisely, the both of us." Ginny nodded and motioned for him to continue. "Before I really get into it here, you'll let me know if I cross some sort of line, right?"

"Yeah," Ginny said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "And don't even ask if I will keep it to myself. You know I will."

"Thanks," Draco smiled. "Well, it's just that, lately, we haven't really talked, about anything. It's like we've hit this big solid wall. I just didn't realize we had until a few days ago. That's when it really registered."

"What do you mean? What kind of wall? What made you realize?"

"It just sort of hit me that we weren't really talking about anything of substance anymore. What made me realize? Well, she's been sort of distant. She spends a lot of her time with Selene and doesn't say anything about what they do like she used to. I just don't know how to start a conversation anymore," Draco said softly.

Ginny frowned slightly as she heard this. "I know what you mean. The last week or two she seems to be spending most of her time with Selene or lost in her thoughts. But to be honest, I didn't really notice anything different with you two until yesterday."

"How did you notice?"

"I noticed that you guys don't really talk and just kinda cuddle or whatever. That and you kept looking over at her and sighing. More like it was a crush and not your girlfriend."

"That's what if feels like." Draco mumbled under his breath.

"Have you tried talking to her?" Ginny suggested as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She put her hands up in defense once Draco directed a withering look in her direction.

"And when would you suggest I do that? The few minutes where she's not sleeping, eating, studying, training or with Selene?" Draco asked sarcastically.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Have you tried telling her that you need to talk? Ask her to make some time for you? I know her. Sometimes you just need to get her to slow down long enough to talk to her."

Draco considered this for a while then nodded. He thought of how best to breach the topic.

**A/N:** Short chapter, but I wanted to get it up. Not a whole lot to it either. Everything is so crazy right now you'll have to forgive me. Updates are going to be few and far between. Very sorry! Just wanted to let everyone know about my two new stories. The Hollow is a post-HBP story and Hungarian Horntails and Pygmy Puffs is a one-shot about the scene at the beginning of "The Seer Overheard" from HBP. I would love for people to review!

Kat


	41. Talking and Fighting

**A/N: **I AM SOOO SORRY! I've just had major writer's block and a ton of other things. A brief thanks to **Hermione-991** for giving me a kick in the arse.

**Previously**

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Have you tried telling her that you need to talk? Ask her to make some time for you? I know her. Sometimes you just need to get her to slow down long enough to talk to her."

Draco considered this for a while then nodded. He thought of how best to breach the topic.

**Chapter Forty-One**

**Fireworks**

Hermione spotted Draco walking down the lawn later that evening while she was sparring with the conjured Andreios. But she couldn't allow herself to be distracted or she'd end up with a nasty bruise. She blocked the swing and backed away, putting her hands up in the motion that would cause the figure to stop. He stepped back just as Draco stepped up.

"Hey," she said, stepping towards him, intending to give him a kiss, but stopping when she saw the sour look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Why don't you tell me?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked, looking at him curiously.

Draco sighed, "I'm talking about all the time you seem to be spending with Selene or out here fighting, too lost in your own world to notice when Blaise and I were flying around the other day. What's going on?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Hermione answered shortly, turning to stand with her back to the conjured Rei and Draco. She suddenly whipped around, kicking the conjured man in the head, bringing him to the ground along with her leg, where he stayed, lifeless.

Draco approached behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hermione-"he began, but he was cut off when she reached behind her and grabbed his wrist. Before he knew it, she was behind him, twisting his arm up behind his back in a painful manner. He gritted his teeth.

"I said," she hissed into his ear, "'I don't want to talk about it.'"

"Fine," he said as she released him. He walked a few steps away and pulled his shirt over his head. Hermione was once again reminded of how much good Quidditch training could do a body. But then she realized his intent. "We'll fight instead."

He walked toward, wrapping conjured material around his knuckles and palms. Finishing, he stood in front of her and waited for her to make the first move. He was pissed off, he wanted to talk to his girlfriend, but couldn't reach her. He decided they needed to do something together before he tried to broach the subject again. Another thought occurred to him, he might be able to get it out of her as they sparred.

Hermione stared in shock as Draco pulled off his shirt and walked over to her. She was pissed off for several reasons. First, she kept having dreams she couldn't remember. Second, her 'perfect' relationship was quickly going down the drain. Three, she had the feeling something was going to happen to Draco. Four, sparring with an ex-boyfriend, who had a habit of beating her by pinning her to the ground, was starting to mess with her. And the thing about all this that really ticked her off, she had no idea what to do about a single one of them. That and she really wanted to be left alone.

All her anger bubbling to the surface, Hermione let it all out. She lifted her right leg and kicked forcefully upward where it was stopped, inches from Draco's groin, where his arms, crossed at the wrists, caught her foot. As soon as her foot hit his arms, Draco opened his hands and held her ankle.

"Now," he said, smiling grimly. "I hate to sound cliché, but we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. But either way, we're still going to talk."

Hermione smirked. She put all her weight into the ankle he was holding before flipping backwards, kicking him in the jaw and causing him to release her ankle, and land gracefully a few feet further back.

"I'll take that as your answer," Draco said, feeling his jaw. He waited for her to attack.

They fought for over half an hour. It ended when Hermione was so tired she missed a block and was leveled by Draco's kick. He pinned her to the floor and she was so reminded of the Andreios she had conjured and all her other fears and worries, everything threatened to burst forth in angry tears, but Hermione controlled the impulse and pushed him off.

Surprised, Draco didn't see fist coming down until it was too late to block and he was disoriented for a minute. This gave Hermione the time she needed to transform and take to the air. When Draco recovered he saw a pure white figure flying swiftly over the trees of the forest. He took off after her.

Hermione looked behind her to see Draco take off from the ground behind her. Annoyed that he wouldn't accept that she didn't want to talk, she dived into the tress. Five feet from the ground she transformed into the panther and took off, running through the woods.

The dragon sighed irritably and flew faster; keeping his eyes trained on the spot Hermione had disappeared into the trees. When he reached the spot, he too dived into the trees. Like Hermione, when he got close to the ground he changed into his other form, that of the nundu. He tried to pick up her scent, but it seemed that when she had transformed, she had left it behind. He sighed and, realizing how tired he was, laid down on the spot and closed his eyes.



"Hermione!" Sirius exclaimed as he opened the door to the flat above Onyx to find Hermione standing there, face streaming with tears and streaked with dirt. She had sticks and leaves in her hair and her body was drenched in sweat. He ushered her inside and he had barely closed the door before she collapsed against him, sobbing.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he half carried her to the couch. Sirius could deal with anything Hermione threw at him. He had become Hermione's magical parent as well as brother and friend. He recognized when he would be getting a flood of emotion and was prepared to deal with it.

As with Blaise, Hermione let the whole story spill out of her hysterical mouth as she sobbed into Sirius's chest. She didn't hesitate and there were many stops and starts when she got too worked up to go on. Eventually, she finished. By the time she was done, Sirius's shirt was almost soaked through and Hermione's face was streaked with tears and her eyes were red and puffy.

Sirius just held her for a long while, until she was ready to talk calmly.

"You okay?" he asked, handing her a tissue.

She laughed wryly. "No, but I'm a little better. I'm sorry, I just needed to talk to you."

"It's okay, you never have to be sorry about coming to me," Sirius said softly.

The two of them continued to talk well into the night. Hermione filled him in on some of the details she had left out in her sobbing while Sirius asked questions whenever he needed clarification. She started to cry again when they reached the topic of Draco.

"Hermione, you have to tell him what's going on."

"How?" she asked, frustrated.

He sighed, "Honesty, I don't know. I do know that you have to tell him. It's not just about you…" he trailed off, something occurring to him. "Hermione, do you think these dreams you've been having could be a way to save Draco?"

Hermione looked up, thoughtfully. "I hadn't thought of that. Do you think so?"

"I think they might be."

"But then why can't I remember them?"

"From what you've told me, it sounds like you've been fighting it. All of it. Maybe if you open up to the idea that all of this is possible then you will be able to remember your dreams."

Hermione pondered on this. "I guess. Look, I don't really feel like going back to the castle right now, and tomorrow is Saturday. Can I stay here tonight?"

Sirius laughed, "Like I could say 'No' to you."

Hermione laughed as well and hugged him. She stood up and went upstairs, to the room Sirius had set up for her at the opening of the club.



Hermione saw herself running so fast it seemed she flew over the earth. She was frightened, angry and desperate. She hadn't been thinking about where she was or where she was going until she stopped. Looking down, Hermione saw Draco's face. Yet, it wasn't Draco. He looked different. He was taller and had darker hair. But the eyes and the face belonged to the Draco she knew. In her heart, Hermione could tell that, whoever she was, she loved the man on the ground in front of her. After touching the cold body she got up and started running again, knowing this time that she knew exactly where her feet were carrying her.

The scene changed to a room in a beautiful marble temple. She was filled with pain and that was fueling her all-consuming rage. She felt a kinship with the man in front of her. It took a minute, but she realized that her anger was aimed at him.

"How could you do this to me?" she screamed at him. It shocked her; she was not normally this prone to extreme emotions.

"What do you mean?"

She was shaking with rage, "I know it was you. Who else besides me would know how to defeat him? I have only one question for you. Why? Why did you send it after him? Why did you kill him?" Her voice had gotten impossibly louder and it seemed to fill the room as if it were an object.

The indignance of the other was palpable as well and once she had finished it burst forth in love and regret, "Because you no longer had time for me! You would not hunt with me! You only hunted with him! He was the only one who ever saw you! I no longer held the right to say that I alone hunted with you! You gave that to a mere mortal. You pushed me aside and I missed you! Is that so wrong?"

Hermione's heart melted at these words and then reconciled.

The scene changed again and Hermione found herself looking in a mirror. She recognized the figure of Isis. Through a haze, Hermione found herself experiencing the resurrection of Osiris. Traveling to the underworld and reviving the other part of her soul.



Hermione awoke suddenly; the meaning of the dreams had pulled her out of sleep before the dream had finished. She sobbed with relief as she realized that there was a way to save Draco. She had been gifted with these deities for a reason. She looked out the window. It was just starting to get light. She got up, dressed and wrote a note for Sirius before rushing out the door. She transformed and took to the sky. Powerful white wings pushed her toward the castle. When she reached the castle she raced through the halls up to the Head Dorms. She burst into Draco's room. She was ready. She was going to tell him everything. She stopped dead in her tracks as she opened the door. He wasn't there.

It was too early for even him to be up. The castle was eerily silent as Hermione searched the halls. She couldn't find him. She was starting to get hysterical. She didn't know what to do, whom to see. She was torn between her cousin and her friend and surrogate brothers. Ginny, that's whom she would go to. Her levelheaded friend would know what to do.



"Ginny, wake up!"

Ginny rubbed her eyes as Hermione's tear streaked face swam into view. Immediately alert, Ginny sat up in her bed. "Mione, what is it?"

"I can't find him. I can't find him anywhere," she was slightly hysterical and hadn't lowered her voice, making the other girls in the room stir. Ginny got out of bed and led Hermione back to the common room.

"What? Who?"

"Draco! I came back to the dorm and he wasn't there! I don't know where he is. We had a fight and I took off to go see Sirius and I know he was behind me. But then he gave up and now I don't know where he is," Hermione sobbed.

"Shh," Ginny said, hugging her friend. "Let's go see Blaise. Maybe Draco went there, just like you came here."

Hermione nodded and followed Ginny out of the common room. They headed down to the Slytherin common room. Hermione spoke the password and they walked in. Telling Ginny to wait there, Hermione hurried up the steps to Blaise's room. Upon waking, Blaise was dragged from his bed into the common room. Hermione spent the next ten minutes filling them in on everything that had happened. She kept rubbing the inside of her wrist on her leg. Absently, she touched the place where her tattoo was, it was burning up. She looked down at it. It was glowing.

Blaise and Ginny had noticed her strange behavior and looked down at their tattoos as well. Theirs were also glowing. Hermione's and Blaise's were pure white and pulsing while Ginny's was a murky gray.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked of the room at large.

"Draco's in trouble," Blaise answered.

Hermione looked up, stunned. "How do you know."?

"We don't have time to discuss it now. I'll tell you on the way. Where was the last place you saw him? The forest?"

Hermione nodded. "Why?"

"That's where we'll look first. I'll fill you in while we get out of the castle."

And he did. Hermione vaguely remember the night the four of them had first discovered they all had the tattoos. They had sat in a circle, or rather, a square. Hermione, across from Ginny, and in between the two boys. That way, when they touched their wrists together there were two sets of wrist with bare skin against bare skin and two sets with tattoo against tattoo. They had done it to form a bond between the four of them. But they didn't know how strong the bond was.

"A couple weeks ago, Ginny was fighting with the conjured guy and she had put too much into him. She was getting beat pretty badly. I doubt you noticed the heat and glow of the tattoo, it wasn't much. But it was enough to let me know something weird was happening. I went in search of Ginny, wondering if she knew what it meant. When I found her, she was close to unconsciousness. That's when we figured out what had happened."

He went on to explain that the tattoos started heating and glowing when someone was in trouble. Hermione and Blaise had the strongest bonds. As each had a familial bond, had bonds with their friends and with their significant others. Draco's and Ginny's were slightly less powerful in that they had two strong bonds. With Hermione and Blaise.

"So you're saying that Draco is in trouble?"

Blaise looked at her, blushing, "Uh, yeah. That's the short version."

They banged out of the castle and immediately transformed. All anyone would have seen was a panther, tiger and wolf taking off across the grounds towards the forest.

A/N: Again, I'm really sorry it's taken so long. If it's more than two weeks since I've updated and you think of it, please send me an email. Chances are that I haven't realized it's been that long. I've missed more than a month of school due to headaches and sometimes the days seem to bleed together. So sorry. I hope you like it. I realize that parts of it may be hard to follow. Enjoy!

Kat


	42. Timing Is Everything

**A/N:** Hey, I think this is going to be the last author's note at the beginning unless there is something specific I have to say. And this time I do. Hehe. Thanks for all the reviews people, it means a lot that you've stuck with the story and keep reviewing and letting me know how I'm doing. However, I would appreciate it if you would not tell me that I got the facts of my story wrong when I went back to the previous chapters to be certain the I was correct. It just ticks me off, because it's like you're saying you know my story better than me. And I went and checked FOR YOU! Cuz I wanted it to be good for you! Because I love you all! Sorry. I really am. I didn't mean to go all-blah, but I can't think of any other way to say it. **Shrugs** Enjoy the chapter.

**Previously**

"So you're saying that Draco is in trouble?"

Blaise looked at her, blushing, "Uh, yeah. That's the short version."

They banged out of the castle and immediately transformed. All anyone would have seen was a panther, tiger and wolf taking off across the grounds towards the forest.

**Chapter Forty-Two**

**Timing is Everything**

Hermione was in the lead as they ran across the grounds. She skidded to a halt and turned in the direction of the fighting platform. Stopping, she turned to the others. This was where he had taken off after her from. She hadn't done any turning to throw him off her trail; it had been a straight path. Deciding that she would look for the place where she had dived into the trees, Hermione transformed from her panther form to the Pegasus. She was a blur of white with glints of gold as she sprang into the air.

The tiger and wolf looked to each other. Then in place of a tiger was a blue and black phoenix. It lifted one of its taloned feet. The wolf cocked its head. When comprehension dawned the wolf was no longer there, in its place was a cobra. It stretched out on the ground to its fullest extent. Flying low over the ground, the phoenix flew by and picked the cobra up in its talons. It then took off after the white form of Hermione.

Scanning the tress as she flew, Hermione finally found the spot she had disappeared into earlier, there was a slight irregularity in the trees from where she and Draco had dived into the trees. She looked back to see if Blaise and Ginny were following, allowing herself to stop forward movement. They were still a few feet away. When they got closer to her, she dived into the trees. When she reached the ground, she shifted back to her normal form. She needed to talk to them before they started their search.

When Blaise reached a few feet above the ground, he let go of Ginny and the two of them changed back as well.

"I have an idea," Hermione said quickly. "All three of us have forms that have a heightened sense of smell, so we'll use those to search for Draco. We'll stay together. Ready?"

The other two nodded and all three transformed once again. They set off, walking at a fast pace, noses close to the ground. After ten excruciating minutes, Blaise got Draco's scent and looked ahead. He saw a form on the ground. Unmoving. He nudged Hermione with his nose then motioned a paw in the direction of the lump.

Before either could react, Hermione was dashing away across the forest floor. Her claws were extended and digging into the moist dirt to give her more traction. She was by Draco's side in a matter of seconds.

Blaise and Ginny reached her a few seconds later and saw her crying over a still Draco. He was breathing, but barely. Ginny put a hand on Hermione's shaking shoulder only to have it shrugged off. She turned to Blaise, unshed tears in her eyes, silently asking him what to do. He shrugged, wondering the same thing himself. The tears in her eyes began to fall slowly onto his shirt as he pulled her into him.

Without warning, Hermione stood up, a fierce blazing hard look in her eyes. She stood so abruptly that it startled Blaise and Ginny. Not uttering a sound, Hermione rounded the body. Standing in front of him, Hermione drew her wand and pointed it at Draco. Thick cord wound around his arms, wrists and hands and met together, seamlessly, in the center, leaving a length of cord in the middle.

Hermione grabbed this and hauled Draco up somewhat. She slipped the cord over her head and onto her shoulders. Still without any comment to either, Hermione transformed. Draco now lay across her white back, situated between her wings, with the cord coming around her neck. She took off into the air after ensuring Draco's security.

Ginny looked at Blaise, "What is she doing?"

"I don't know," he answered softly. "Do you think we should follow her?"

"There is now way I am letting her out of my sight," she said, gesturing for him to transform before she did so herself. They repeated the process of Blaise picking Ginny up and flying off. The duo followed at a safe distance, so as not to intrude on what they seemed to feel was a personal moment. It seemed rude for them to be too close to Hermione though they didn't know why.



She couldn't feel. She wouldn't allow herself the privilege of emotions right now. If she gave into them, she wouldn't be able to help Draco. Knowing that Blaise and Ginny were right behind her, Hermione increased her speed almost imperceptibly so that by the time the two realized they were falling behind, she would be able to loose them inside the castle.

She turned around one of the turrets, glancing behind her. They were far enough behind her to put her plan into action. She found the window to the Head's Dorms and crashed through the window with her head down. Turning back into her principal form, she shed Draco's body. She took him into her room and laid him on her bed. About to leave the room, Hermione stopped as she passed the mirror. She was a mess. Her eye makeup was running down her face and she was covered in muck and had twigs and leaves stuck in odd places.

Knowing she would be back with in seconds, Hermione left the room. She walked out of the dorm and turned to face the portrait as it closed.

"Hello Hermione."

"What happened?"

She held up a hand to stop them. "I need you to do something for me."

"We are sworn to do whatever it is the head's ask," the young Sirius said.

"Good. Here's what I need you to do. I need you to open into a different location when anyone but me tries to get in. Namely, Blaise and Ginny."

"Wait," James said. "We only open to one place."

Hermione shook her head impatiently. "You can open to any place you want, as long as you know where it is. I read it in Hogwarts: A History. I don't care where you send them, just don't let them in the Head's dorms."

"Do you mind if we ask why?"

"Yes."

James and Sirius looked taken aback where Lupin looked as if this was the answer he expected. He spoke, "If they come out, and they try to go in again, can we send them a different place each time?"

"Yes."

James looked excited, "Can we create a place in our imaginations and send them there?"

"No. It has to be a real place. Got it?"

James and Sirius hopped to attention and Lupin rolled his eyes. James whispered to Lupin out of the side of his mouth, "Moony, come on."

"Oh, there is one more thing. Don't tell them that I told you to send them on a wild goose chase. Pretend that you don't know what's going on. Alright?"

James bowed, "Your wish…"

"…is our command," Sirius bowed.

Lupin rolled his eyes.

Hermione gave the password and as the portrait swung open she said quietly, "Thank you."

Draco looked so pale against the dark blue of her bed. She shoved the uprising fear into the back as she walked over to the corner between her vanity and desk. This was where her greatest physical secret lay. The corner was given over to one of her favorite things. Ancient Egypt.

There was a table with a glass top over a small model of King Tut's tomb. The top of the coffin lifted off to reveal a small hollowed out compartment that Hermione had filled with various treasures. She had a few tall gold candleholders that had serpents winding around the lengths. The most impressive article was the replication of Luxor columns with three glass shelves that contained various other recreations.

She knelt at the table and removed the coffin lid. She didn't know enough about Isis and she didn't have time to learn more. She removed the items from the coffin. Among them was the book from the library with the picture of Artemis that looked just like Hermione. The book contained another picture that was so similar to this one that Hermione had originally thought that the pictures were duplicated. But then she had noticed slight differences in stature and clothing. But the faces were the same. It was Isis.

She took the book to her vanity. Picking up her wand, she waved it over her face, hair and clothing. It cleaned and dried immediately. She then looked at the picture before running her wand around her eyelids in the Egyptian style. When she looked up at the mirror again, her eyes were rimmed in kohl, just like in the depiction. She ran her wand over her hair, making it stick straight. She closed the book and took it back to the coffin.

Without the knowledge of what Isis wore or the time to find out and create it, she went with the next best thing. She opened the chest on the other side of the table and withdrew the bundle that contained her Halloween costume. Closing the chest, she picked it up and walked over to the lounge at the foot of her bed. She shed her clothes.

With the air of getting ready for a ceremony, Hermione ran her wand over her body. A gold sheen appeared on her skin. She picked up the skirt and pulled it on. As she ran her hands down the skirt, she felt the material lengthen so the skirt touched the floor. The belt grew with the skirt. She looked to the top. There was a soft jangling as she pulled it on. Gold. That's what she was now. The only other colors on her body were the black of her hair and eyeliner along with the blue of her eyes.

She put on gold armbands and waved her wand over the bands and the belt. Flecks of black and blue stone appeared. She turned to the mirror. There was one thing left. Turning to the corner of the room she carefully walked over to the shelves. There was a hidden compartment in one of the columns. Opening it, she carefully took out two items.

One was a small dagger with rubies encrusted into the handle and a representation of her own wings at the hilt. She put it aside, unsure if she would need it later. The other object was a box that, when opened, revealed an intricate beaded headdress. Hermione took this to her mirror and put it on. At the front of the headdress was a small replication of Isis's crown. The sun disc set between two horns. Hermione felt a rush of warmth run through her when it touched her skin.

She was ready. But in only one sense. She had no idea what she was going to do. Whatever it was, she did know it couldn't be done here. There was a strong impulse running through her to perform whatever ceremony it was she was about to do, outside. The dagger was placed in her skirt, on her hip, the cool metal resting against her skin, inexplicably comforting. It was the only thing she took with her. She left her wand where it lay on the vanity.

In the common room, Hermione tapped on the small painting next to the portrait hole. She whispered into it, "Padfoot! Moony! Prongs!" Sirius entered the frame followed closely by James.

"What can we do for-whoa!" Sirius started then started at her.

"Why do you always call him fir-"James trailed off.

Sirius whispered, "You look like a goddess."

Hermione smirked, "Good. Listen. Have Ginny and Blaise come by?"

The two split into evil grins that could rival Fred and George. "We just sent them off for the fourth time," James snickered.

"How long will they be gone?"

"One to five more minutes," Lupin said, joining them.

"Do they have any idea you're controlling this?"

"None."

"Good. If they figure it out. Tell them I went back out into the grounds. That is where I will be, but they'll think I told you to lie to them. If you don't think that will work. Tell them something else. Just make sure they can't find me. Got it?"

"Yes," the three of them said together.

"Go check to make sure the coast is clear and that I will have enough time to make it down the hall before they see me."

They went to check and James was back less than ten seconds later telling her good luck.



"Where are we?" Ginny cried in frustration. "Let's just go back, then we'll…I don't know."

Blaise looked thoughtful, "You know, I bet Hermione had something to do with our current location. It's just the sort of thing she would do. Plus it's buying her time."

Ginny stared at him in shock then took off towards the portrait. Blaise followed her and they burst through the portrait hole, looking in opposite directions, just in time for Blaise to catch sight of Hermione's skirt as it whipped out of sight.

"Ginny! There she is!" Blaise cried, and he had barely finished when he felt Ginny tear past him as a wolf. He took off after her, deciding that he would be able to keep up with her better from the sky. They turned the corner and she was nowhere to be seen.

Hermione prayed that they would not look up and that Blaise would not hover any higher above the ground. As it was, she could barely believe that they could neither sense her emotionally nor sense her physically. She took a step, hoping against hope that her spell had worked. It had. She ran, her bare feet making no noise on the ceiling. Harry had given her the idea. Well, the maze from the Triwizard Tournament had given her idea. But she had taken the idea of the mist and made a spell to reverse ground and sky, while there was a solid barrier keeping the caster from floating off into space. She hadn't known it would come in handy so soon, she hadn't even tested it properly before. Looking down and behind her, Hermione could no longer see Blaise or Ginny so she lifted the spell. She step barely faltered as the world righted itself again. She just closed her eyes and kept running, only opening them again when the whooshing sensation she associated with the spell was gone.

Heart pounding with the rhythm of bare feet against the floor Hermione fairly flew down the corridors. Wasting no time with stairs, she simply slid down banisters, not once loosing her balance. She had just reached the entrance hall when the doors opened. Stopping dead in her tracks, Hermione didn't even try to hide herself. She just stood there, staring.

"Kassandra?" she whispered, not really knowing if her friend was really there or if she had just gone 'round the bend.

Kassandra looked much as Hermione did. Like she had prepared for some kind of ritual. But her style of dress was not Egyptian; it was Greek. She looked elegant in a simple white chiton with gold embroidery. There was a long length of gold wire threaded throughout her hair, keeping the majority up while letting tendrils spiral down her face. Her face was a mask of pain. She wore all the emotions Hermione was feeling right out there for the world to see while Hermione herself kept them hidden behind a mask of calm.

"It won't work. Not yet."

Hermione stared at her, "What do you mean? What does 'not yet' mean?"

"It means," Kassandra started, despair in her voice, "that the ceremony or ritual or whatever it is you're going to do won't work until you know how and why he died."

"I don't care. It doesn't matter," Hermione said firmly, trying to keep the emotions at bay. If she allowed emotion to get in the way, she would never be able to make it through.

"But it does. I don't know why, but knowledge is a part of it. That's why I'm here. To help you find out what happened to him."

"I don't bloody care WHAT happened to him or HOW!" Hermione yelled. "All I care about is getting him back! That's all that matters," she finished a little more quietly.

Kassandra started to go impatient, "Well, you won't get him back unless you figure how he died! Take me to him, then we can figure out how he died, then we can save him."

Hermione glared then stalked out the doors, motioning for Kassandra to follow her.

They sprinted across the grass to the fighting platform. The cool summer night felt good against their bare skin. As they reached the platform, Kassandra looked around. "I told you to take me to Draco."

Hermione glared at her, "We're not going back in the castle. Draco will be joining us in a moment." Surely enough, less than a minute later, Draco's body appeared in front of them. The unmarked body lay motionless in front of the two girls. Without realizing, Kassandra let a single tear fall. She turned to Hermione.

"I won't be able to see what happened. Only you will. Only one set of eyes can see an event in my mind at a time. Is that okay?"

"Yes."

"I warn you, as you will most likely be experiencing Draco's death from his eyes, it may get a little…"

"I get it," Hermione said coolly. "Let's do this."

Kassandra sat on Draco's right and placed her hand on his head. She told Hermione to lay on her other side and placed her head on Hermione's head.

Hermione closed her eyes and tried to prepare herself to witness Draco Malfoy's death. She couldn't. When she opened her eyes she was watching herself turn into a panther as she dived into the forest and knew that this must have been earlier that evening when Draco had been chasing her. She felt him loose hope as he plunged into the trees, felt his exhaustion. He had just laid down to rest when a twig snapped. Instantly, Draco was himself again, wand out in his hand while his eyes scanned the trees. She felt his vulnerability. His eyes found a dark shadow and a glint of silver. Hermione felt a flash of fear and recognition that was entirely Draco's. He never had a chance; the curse had already been cast. Hermione sensed his last emotion, regret, before the light hit him full in the chest.

The moment the curse hit Draco, Hermione's point of view changed. She was suddenly looking upon the scene from the left. Looking around, Hermione saw someone emerge out of the trees from behind her. The figure was cloaked and hooded, the hood obscuring his face. When the figure reached Draco's writhing form, a foot emerged from underneath the cloak and kicked Draco's side. Hermione let out a dry sob as she instinctively moved to stop the person.

Draco's body was still twitching even after the man had lifted the curse. The sound of immense pain as he breathed made Hermione loose the little control she still had over her emotions. A tear slipped down her cheek.

The figure threw back the hood and the cold grey eyes stared contemptuously into the pain filled orbits so like his own. Hermione gasped as horrific comprehension dawned. The man's words told her his relation to Draco.

"That'll teach you, my little brother, to go gallivanting off and falling in love with a little mudblood bitch."

A look of regret and determination crossed Draco's faced at these words. An interesting mix. He tried to get up. But his brother raised his wand and, with a flash of blinding green light Draco crumpled back to the ground, dead, his last word dying on his lips, "Hermione."

Hermione gasped as a rage and hatred she had never known consumed her body. In the one orifice of her being that had not been obstructed by this fire within her, one thing registered. Draco was dead at the hands of his brother. A brother she had met.

Hermione wanted to scream but her rage was so immense that she could make no sound. The vision ended and she was back in her body. That seemed to chip away a small enough part of her rage to give voice to it. She leapt up and screamed with all the breath in her lungs and with all the breath she didn't have. She screamed until her lungs burned and there was no longer sound coming forth from her mouth. She screamed so hard her head ached as much as her heart.

Kassandra was so startled she fell off the platform as she was getting up. Her dearest friend was in so much pain it was palpable in the air. Concerned eyes watched the witch give voice to her feelings; bent almost 90 degrees, arms extended backwards, hands clenched into fists. Hermione's knuckles were white with rage and blood was slowly beginning flow from the half-moon slices her nails had created in her palms. Her face was showing more pain that Kassandra ever cared to feel. Mouth open, screaming in rage and pain, eyes open, tears gathered but not falling. Her entire body was shaking. Kassandra thought Hermione looked the epitome of anguish.

After Hermione's cry of pain, Kassandra feared to break the silence that fell as she watched her friend straighten and pull herself together. Hermione's face was even colder and harder than before. She watched as her friend walked over to Draco again. Hermione looked down at Draco, then up at Kassandra. Their eyes met. Hermione's eyes surprised Kassandra. They were normally so full of emotion and life. Now there were only two things. A cold hard fury and an almost disturbing looking of determination.

Nothing in Hermione's eyes could have disturbed her more than what she said next. It wasn't just what she said. It was the way she said it, idly, like it was just something she thought Kassandra should know. Hermione looked Kassandra in the eye and said, "I've never wanted to kill anyone. But I'm going to."

**A/N:** Well, here is another chapter. A LONG chapter! Means you might like to give a LONG review! **hopeful look on my face right now** I know that there's some slow parts, please forgive me. Anyhoo, the next chapter is already being written, so I hope that it won't be too long between updates. I think this may have been my longest chapter. Maybe maybe not. It's the same page length as Chapter Nine. And both word counts are over 3500. Sheesh. Well, you will find out who it was next chapter, hope you liked the extra twist, and the ritual will probably be next chappie. If anyone wants to guess on who Draco's killer is, PLEASE! I welcome the guesses. And, in case you couldn't tell, the story is winding down, but don't worry. I've got The Hollow and at least one other idea for a DM/HG fic bouncing around my head. Well, now that I've written two chapter length **A/N**s, I'll be off.

Kat


	43. Making It Up As We Go

**Disclaimer**

Only the ideas are mine along with a few of the characters. All other Potterverse things belong to J.K. Rowling. The incantation from early on in the chapter is from Wicked the musical.

**Previously**

Nothing in Hermione's eyes could have disturbed her more than what she said next. It wasn't just what she said. It was the way she said it, idly, like it was just something she thought Kassandra should know. Hermione looked Kassandra in the eye and said, "I've never wanted to kill anyone. But I'm going to."

**Chapter Forty-Three**

**Making It Up As We Go**

"Damnit!" Ginny yelled as she and Blaise reached a window overlooking the forest and, consequently, Hermione, Draco and Kassandra.

"What?" Blaise asked, breathing hard, coming to stand behind her.

"She got past us and out onto the grounds!"

"Who is that with her?" Blaise asked, straining to see Kassandra's face.

"I don't know," Ginny said. She had a desperate look on her face as she bodily shoved herself and Blaise back from the window and took out her wand. Blaise looked alarmed, but didn't say anything. "Elidere!" Ginny yelled, jabbing her wand at the window. The glass shattered. Blaise barely heard it when she said," Pick me up" before she transformed into the cobra. It took a few seconds until Blaise registered what was happening, he just stood their shocked until Ginny hissed at him. Then he too shifted form and picked her up, soaring out the window toward Hermione.



Hermione was chanting something that Kassandra didn't recognize.

"Eleka nahmen nahmen

Ah tum ah tum eleka nahmen

Eleka nahmen nahmen

Ah tum ah tum eleka- "

Hermione stopped chanting as some other presence caught her attention. She stood abruptly, startling Kassandra. Ignoring her friend's questioning gaze, Hermione strode out onto the grass and stood, waiting.



_What is she doing?_ Blaise wondered as he flew. He slowed he pace as he neared her. But even with his Phoenix eyes he could not have seen her next movement. One instant she was standing in front of him the next he heard a ringing echo and had to swerve hard right to keep from flying straight into a wall.



As Kassandra had watched, Hermione had raised her arms above her head and clapped once. The movement had been so fast that, had she not been a seer, she would not have seen it. In the ringing silence left by the clap, Kassandra noted one thing: Blaise and Ginny had disappeared.

She watched as Hermione calmly walked back to the platform and up towards Draco and herself. When she was close enough, Kassandra breathed deeply and asked softly, "Where are they?"

"I sent them to Sirius," Hermione said matter of factly.

Kassandra stared at her. The fact that her friend was doing such powerful magic was worrying enough in and of itself. But without a wand? That was unheard of. "How are you doing all this magic without your wand?"

Hermione sighed and looked at Kassandra, sapphire meeting chocolate. "It's because I'm a goddess, but you know that. I never really needed a wand, which," Hermione chuckled humorlessly, "I just found out tonight. Isis was powerfully magical. I get it from her." She kept her answers short, cold, and clipped. She went back to Draco and was about to sit back down when something flashed across her face, something that gave Kassandra pause. "Will it work now?" she asked.

"I don't see any reason why it won't," Kassandra answered hesitantly.

Hermione nodded thoughtfully then, in a flash of movement that Kassandra barely saw, Hermione clapped her hands once more and the next thing she knew, Kassandra was stumbled over the back of a sofa landing on Ginny.



Hermione was left alone with Draco in the silence. She turned back to him and whispered softly, "Alone at last."



"I'm going to _murder_ her!" Ginny raved, stalking around Sirius's flat in Hogsmeade. "Then I'm going to bring her back to life and as she says 'clone' her and then I'll kill all her 'clones!'" She turned to stare desperately at Sirius. "What are we going to do?"

Sirius had been mostly silent since they had arrived. He had just listened while they told him all about what had happened since they had first seen Hermione after she got back from visiting him. He finally looked up at Ginny with weary eyes. "I don't know." He stood and went to the mantle over his fireplace. He poured several drinks and passed them out. At their questioning gazes he simply said, "It helps."

"Do you think we should get all the others involved?"

"Exactly how many is 'all the others?'"

Ginny looked thoughtful and ticked them off on her fingers counting everyone from Harry to Mandy, "It's like eleven people. Why don't we just get Harry, Ron, Selene and Aella involved? They're the ones who know the whole story, or most of it at least."

Sirius ran a hand through his hair, "Good, can you get to Selene and Aella?"

"Yes." It was Kassandra who answered.

"Okay," Sirius said, he sounded distracted and kept running his hands through his hair and over his face.

"Sirius," Blaise started. "What's wrong?"

"I'll never forgive myself if anything happens to them. Hermione brought me back and Draco was going to be my best man," Sirius said wearily before draining his glass. The three of them watched with sympathetic eyes.



Selene rarely slept. It wasn't a conscious decision to always stay awake she just rarely felt the need to sleep. That was why when there was tapping on her window, Selene wasn't there to answer it. However, Selene's senses at night were always sharpened so when Blaise tapped at her window as softly as possible, her head whipped around in the direction of her room.

"Blaise?" she asked incredulously. Though the two were both friends of Hermione's and had never had a reason to dislike each other, they were not close. She didn't waste any time. Crossing to the window she opened it and Blaise flew in and transformed quietly. Selene led him back out to the Ravenclaw common room and turned to look at him.

"It's Hermione," Blaise said before Selene could ask. "And Draco."

Selene's eyes grew wide, "What happened?"

"I don't even know," Blaise said wearily. "Draco was killed somehow and Hermione thinks she's going to bring him back."

Closing her eyes, Selene silently debated whether or not to ask the question on her mind. She decided to go for it, "Do you know why she thinks she can?"

Blaise regarded her, "Because of Isis. Because she is Isis." Selene nodded in acceptance of his answer. He was unsure if she had been wondering if he knew it or not.

"You know she will succeed, don't you?"

Stunned, Blaise asked, "But how can she?"

"Because she's done it many times before. And because…well…" she ran a hand through her tousled hair in frustration, searching for words, "I don't quite know myself, but I think she's destined to break Artemis's fate of being alone. I don't really know though."

Blaise nodded. "Well, we still need to find her. She's performing extremely complicated magic without a wand and…we just need to find her," he finished lamely.

"I know. We will. Let me change. I can't go out looking for my friend in naught but my slip," Selene said amused. It was only then that Blaise realized that she was indeed unclothed and he blushed mumbling apologies as she walked into her room.



"Ron! Harry! Wake up! Hermione is in trouble," Ginny cried frantically in the hopes that she could wake the two boys without waking the rest of the dormitory. It didn't work. In fact, it backfired horribly. The other three boys awoke groggily asking what was going on. Ginny sighed and shook her head thinking 'Only me,' then walked over to her brother and slapped him hard across the face.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, jerking up. "Whaddya do 'at for?"

"Get UP!" Ginny fairly yelled. Then, turning to Harry to see him flop back in his bed and pull his covers up she growled, a feral look in her eyes, as her frustration got the better of her and she pulled out her wand and pointed it at him thinking '_Levicorpus_!'

"Aaah!" Harry yelled as he was hoisted into the air by an invisible line. "Alright, alright, I'm up!"

Ron was laughing at Harry, but he stopped when his baby sister turned her glinting eyes upon him and said in a dangerous voice, "Get up now, Hermione is in trouble."

Without another thought Ron sprang out of bed and Harry tried to as well, however he was still held captive by Ginny's spell.

"Um, Ginny? Can you let me down, please?" He asked hesitantly.

She let him down and stormed out of the room muttering, "Bloody boys."



"What happened to you guys?" Sirius asked when everyone had gathered back at his place.

"We didn't get up when Ginny said to the first time," Harry winced.

Sirius chuckled and nodded approvingly at Ginny, who grinned mischievously. Then he took on a more serious tone as he addressed the assembled group. "I trust you were all filled in on your way here?" Nods from everyone. "Good. Well, I don't really know what we can do to stop Hermione past finding her and trying to talk some sense into her."

Selene cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "I don't know that that will work. To be perfectly honest, I'm not even sure we should be trying to stop her."

All but Kassandra looked at her like she was psychotic. "Are you crazy!" Ginny exploded first. "She's going to kill herself! She has no idea what she's doing!"

"With all respect, Ginny, she does. To a certain extent she knows exactly what she's doing. And I don't mean to rude, but maybe that's why she sent you here." She sighed at the incredulous looks, "She knew you wouldn't support her, she knew you would try to stop her. Maybe we shouldn't be, maybe we she be trying to help her. Then she will have even more of a chance to succeed." She looked around at the group and noticed that Sirius and Ginny seemed to be the only ones affected by her words. Inwardly sighing in exasperation at the rest of them for their stubbornness, she asked to speak to Ginny, Kassandra, and Sirius privately.



Despite her outside calm she really had no idea what she was doing. On the inside she knew she could do it, but she just didn't know what IT was. She felt the dagger against her hip and suddenly remembered a spell. By all rights she shouldn't have _remembered _it, but she wasn't bothered by these revelations anymore.

Pulling out the dagger, she looked at it thoughtfully. Hermione Granger never would have believed that she would be doing this. Hermione Zabini, with the powers of Isis and Artemis in her, not to mention the lucky Hermes, couldn't be bothered to stop and think about it.

She walked around to Draco's head and sat. A golden chalice appeared next to her with a wave of her hand. Leaning over Draco, she made a two-inch cut in his forearm leading away from his wrist. The cut was directly under his tattoo. Though his heart had stopped beating, his blood still flowed from the cut, whether by magic or not, it was unclear. Hermione caught several drops of it in the chalice before returning to her place at his head.

Placing the chalice in front of her, Hermione then raised her left arm over the rim. She dug the tip of the dagger into her flesh. It didn't hurt as much as she thought it would. Perhaps she just couldn't feel right now, that's what it certainly seemed like. The blood flowed freely from the wound but as soon as she removed the dagger from her skin, it healed. Her skin was flawless.

Swirling the dagger in the chalice, Hermione mixed her blood with Draco's. Wiping off the dagger, she imbedded it into the mat of the platform beside her. She wrapped her hands around the base of the chalice and lifted it to her mouth.

She breathed into it, making a slight indentation in the pool of blood. Lifting her right hand above the uplifted chalice, she moved as if she were going to sprinkle some potion ingredient into the blood. Lo and behold, crushed scarabs fell from her fingertips. Setting the chalice back down, she picked up the dagger and swirled the contents, mixing blood and scarab.

Chanting words she did not know she brought the dripping dagger out over the rim and flicked the blood down Draco's body. It didn't touch him. Arcing above his body the splatter of blood lay two feet above his body. Standing, Hermione stepped to his side and gently poured the rest of the blood on the center of his abdomen. But not a single drop touched him. It spread out over his body in a dome.

Having served its purpose, Hermione returned the chalice to the ground where it promptly disappeared. She looked back at Draco and her resolve started to crumble. She had sworn to herself that she would do anything she could to get him back. But looking at him, even paler than usual with the eerie dome of blood above him, she started to think it wasn't possible.

She was sucked back into…the only thing she could really call it was a memory, but it wasn't her memory, it was Artemis's.

Late at night, pass the shock of seeing Orion dead, Artemis sat in her bedchamber. Normally, she would have been out hunting, but she no longer had anyone to hunt with. Fighting back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes, she looked into the heavens and found him. "I swear, one day I'll save you."

Later, she would swear that she must have been imagining it, for it hadn't happened before and it hadn't happened since, but she heard the same voice, the voice of Artemis say, "Today is the day."

Resolve firmly in place, if not strengthened, Hermione turned away from Draco. Not knowing how this was going to feel or what she would come in contact with, Hermione closed her eyes as she lowered herself to sit upon the dome. Surprisingly, it held her weight as if it were a chair. Sighing with relief she opened her eyes, she turned and brought her legs up to settle over the dome. Lastly, she leaned backwards, her arms crossed over her chest, right in front of left. As her head made contact she sank through the dome.

**A/N:** I am so incredibly sorry! I had almost half of this written before the dreaded monster known as Riter's Blok attacked me. Well, he ganged up with another monster named Skool and between the two of them…phew. Besides, you guys are supposed to gang up on me and pester me until I post if its more than like two weeks since I've posted. You're slipping! Anyhoo, big thanks to my beta, you're awesome! And, I would appreciate it if you would review and tell me what you thought considering it took me so long to get this out. Thanks!

Kat


	44. An Egyptian Odyssey

I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.

_Joan Didion_

**Previously**

Resolve firmly in place, if not strengthened, Hermione turned away from Draco. Not knowing how this was going to feel or what she would come in contact with, Hermione closed her eyes as she lowered herself to sit upon the dome. Surprisingly, it held her weight as if it were a chair. Sighing with relief she opened her eyes, she turned and brought her legs up to settle over the dome. Lastly, she leaned backwards, her arms crossed over her chest, right in front of left. As her head made contact she sank through the dome.

**Chapter Forty-Four**

**An Egyptian Odyssey**

She had expected to fall onto Draco's chest; had expected to feel a solid body underneath her; had expected to fail. Quite contrary to her expectations however, as she sank below the surface of the dome, she was shocked to feel herself falling. To her emotionally strained mind, the moment seemed to last an interminable amount of time when, in reality, it lasted roughly 20 seconds. Hermione wasn't exactly pleased when her last expectation turned out to be spot on. She had fully expected to slam into the ground, whatever the surface may be, which she did.

For several moments, Hermione couldn't move, couldn't breathe, could barely think. When she did regain full ability to reason, the first notion to cross her sluggish brain was that she might have died from the impact but then…she was thinking, wasn't she? Could you think if you were dead? Deciding to put that intriguing question away for later, she focused her faltering brain on her body. Breathing again, she gingerly righted herself and stood.

Though not positive what she should be checking for, Hermione inspected her body for any injuries. Her rear throbbed a little, as did the back of her skull. Those two parts of her anatomy seemed to have taken the brunt of the injuries for her posterior landed first and her skull had banged on the hard ground. A clear sharp pain was starting to develop in her head, right behind her left eye and her vision was beginning to blur. Closing her eyes, Hermione remembered a magical panacea. Quickly saying the ancient words, she felt a warm rush of energy flow over her; a coolness spreading over the parts of her that felt the most pain.

Able to think clearly again, she finally glanced at her surroundings. _'I must have hit my head harder than I thought,'_ she said to herself, rubbing at her head. Realizing her train of thought she shook her head in self-disgust, _'That is so clichéd. The fact that I'm even thinking that must mean that this is real."_ Her logic was, naturally, correct.

She looked around again at the environs. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she focused on mentally cataloging everything in the spacious room into which she had fallen. It was a large square room with a high, vaulted ceiling. The floor was sand and the walls seemed to be made of bricks of the stuff. Hermione ran one of her hands lightly against the wall and sand crumbled from underneath her long fingers. She pulled her hand back and examined her fingers. There was a light dusting of sand clinging to them. Brushing her hands off she re-examined the room. On the north wall was an opening, as there was on the south wall. The east and west walls were flat and undecorated. Next to the openings on the north and south walls were lit torches. One on each side of the doorway.

Hermione walked to the opening in the north wall. Gazing into the open space before her, her eyes strained to see past the small circle of light that emanated from the two torches. She reached back to remove a torch from the wall with her right hand and held it in front of her, trying to see further. When that didn't reveal much she sighed and glanced at the south wall, deliberating. Giving up, she replaced the torch on the wall and walked to the center of the room and sat on her knees with her legs folded underneath her.

Hand flashing to her hip where she had stashed her dagger earlier, and finding it gone, her mind flashed back to the preparation and implanting its tip into the floor. Sighing, she closed her gleaming, sorrowful eyes and moved her hand down a few inches, as if feeling along the length of the imaginary dagger. Her fingers spread, middle finger and ring finger the length of the blade apart. She trailed them up her thigh a few inches then smoothly moved her hand to clasp around an imaginary handle. As her hand closed she withdrew the dagger. Cold, hard, gleaming metal. Entirely real.

Holding her hand out in front of her, the dagger lay on Hermione's palm. "Show me." The dagger spun in her hand in the blink of an eye and stopped, quivering, to point at the south wall.

Harry had used a similar spell in his fourth year. The "point me" spell was supposed to point north. Hermione changed it. Her spell revealed the path to whatever it was, or whoever it was, that was yearned for.

Glancing around the room one last time, Hermione got up and headed towards the southern wall. She removed one of the torches from the wall; a half formed idea bidding her to do so, and started down the corridor.

There were no torches besides the one she carried in her hand. The walls seemed to be made of the same stone as in the room she had fallen into, the floor still sand. She was relieved to find that there were no creepy critters crawling around on the ground like some bad horror movie.

The corridor held no sharp turns, instead it held only subtle bends. It had the feeling of a maze. Hermione felt as though she were drawing nearer to something. That something was waiting for her in the middle. As this thought crossed her mind she came upon a large, brightly lit door way. Above it was a faded, yet distinct, depiction of the Egyptian sun god, Ra, making his nightly journey through the underworld. She barely paused to look at it. A testament to the hurry she was in.

Stepping quickly through the doorway she was forced to give pause as she was assaulted by light. There was only one source of light in the large room, high above her, a large basin filled with fire. But it was reflected off of many surfaces. All around her were mirrored surfaces, only one or two actual mirrors. The rest just happened to be incredibly shiny. Directly opposite her was a throne of sorts. It was not large or ornate. It was simply an immense chair. Set into the wall, it rose above her head and the arms were built out of the wall of the same thick stone. However intriguing the simplicity of the throne, it was not nearly as enthralling as its occupant.

Seated in the throne was…well, she wasn't quite sure what it was. Light or shadows, present or absent, black or white. Rather, it was all of them at once. Most intriguing of these was the light and shadow. Hermione's eyes were dazzled by the bright light, but they yearned to see light in the encroaching shadow. Wondering if she hadn't perhaps fainted back in the first corridor she shook her head and started to question her sanity.

"You are quite sane." The voice was unlike anything she had ever heard. Filled with the strength and power to command thousands. And yet overflowing with the sweetest melody she had ever heard.

It took several moments for Hermione's brain to catch up with her. When she had recovered from hearing the magnificent voice it registered to her that that thing, whatever it was, had read her thoughts. She wondered vaguely what it was, so powerful, that it could read her very thoughts.

Just as she thought this, the glorious voice rang out again and spoke softly into the silence, "I am the source of everything. I created all that you see before you, all you have ever seen, and all you will ever see. I created balance. I created choice. I choose to be a contradiction. I am balance." It paused as if to consider this. When it continued it was with a derisive snort so lovely it could melt a heart of stone, "Balance. Such a thing does not exist. There is no yin and yang. No perfect blend of black and white."

It split then. Not into separate pieces, but into a division of color, of black and white.

"There is only grey."

In an instant there was a shining shadow of the most horrendously lovely grey Hermione had ever laid eyes on.

And still she wondered, "Who?"

Sighing it replied, "I have many names. The Egyptians called me Ra. The Greeks, Zeus. The Muslims, Allah. The Hebrews, El-Shaddai. There are many more. But it would take a very long time to go through them all."

Hermione reeled in this information. Here she was, in the presence of God. Well, it didn't mention that name, but she was going to use it anyway. This couldn't be real. In the far recesses of her mind a question nagged at her. Her ever-present yearning for knowledge longed to know if this proved monotheism. She didn't she any other deities present and the thing hadn't mentioned any. But it had claimed to be several different ones. It was all too confusing for her. Sighing and shaking her head, trying to clear out the confusing thoughts that were distracting her from her purpose, Hermione refocused on the astonishing figure before her as it spoke.

"Tell me, child, why are you here?" The voice wasn't angry, merely inquisitive.

"I'm here to – I'm here because – "she stopped, unable to find the words to accurately summarize her actions without coming across as rash or clichéd.

"You're here to claim the life of your love."

She looked up, nodded. That was closest to what she was feeling. She whispered, "Yes."

"What are you willing to do for him?" the lovely voice asked.

Hermione thought seriously for a moment before she spoke, "I'm here. Does that not tell you that I would do anything?"

It was hard to tell, but it looked like the shining head tilted slightly, as if considering. "Too right you are. In that case, you must do two things." Hermione nodded. "You must find your way out of here with Draco's…soul, as you might call it. However, the second thing you must do is more difficult. Tell me, have you ever heard of Orpheus?"

The name ignited contradictory flames of terror and hope in Hermione. She knew the story. And so she answered, "Yes."

"Then here is what you must do. You will find your way back to your way back to the living world with a shade of Draco following behind you. For that is what he will look like, a shade. However, the moment you set foot out of this sanctum you may not look at him. For if you do, all will be as it was with that ancient musician. Do you understand?"

"Yes." She thought about what this would mean and remembered the myth she had read about Orpheus and Eurydice.

_ Hades allowed Orpheus to take his bride Eurydice back to the sunny world above on one condition: Orpheus must not look at his bride before they reached the realm of the living. She would walk behind him, but if he turned, and looked at her, she must return to the underworld._

The way was long, and as Orpheus walked on and on, doubt began to creep into his mind. Had Hades deceived him? Were the sounds he heard behind him really Eurydice's footsteps? He had almost reached the upper world, and could already see a dim light ahead, when he could bear his doubts no longer. He had to turn and see if she really was there. He saw her sweet face, but only for an instant, for again Hermes appeared at her side. He turned her about and led her back to the dark gloom below. Faintly, Orpheus heard her whisper farewell. He had lost her forever through his lack of faith. 

Squaring her shoulders, Hermione refocused on the luminescent figure in front of her and prepared to ask her question. "If I interpret you correctly, am I to understand that I may see Draco before I leave this room?" She trembled at her own audacity.

All movement in the figure before her halted. "I must admit that I did not expect you to catch that loophole. Orpheus did not. However, you are not Orpheus. Your passions do not change with the change of the wind." A pause. "Yes. You may see him. Up until the moment you leave this room."

An arm motioned to the side at something Hermione either hadn't noticed before, or had not been there before. She gasped as a willowy grey figure stepped out to meet her. It was Draco. But not Draco as Hermione remembered him. He was exactly as promised, a shade.

Her favorite voice in the world was voiced, but it was not what she was accustomed to. It sounded very far away, as though it was echoing through a long hall as he softly spoke. "Hermione."

A single tear ran down her cheek.

"Draco."

**A/N: **There you go! I know it's kinda short for me, but I wanted to get it out. And I'm not going to even apologize. I had a huge bout of writer's block. And when I say huge, I mean gigantic, I haven't been able to write anything lately. But let's hope I don't go another however many months without writing. However, I won't promise anything because now that my insanely busy summer is over, I have started my insanely busy school year. Well, sorry for all that.

Kat


	45. Intolerable Cruelty

**Previously**

An arm motioned to the side at something Hermione either hadn't noticed before, or had not been there before. She gasped as a willowy grey figure stepped out to meet her. It was Draco. But not Draco as Hermione remembered him. He was exactly as promised, a shade.

Her favorite voice in the world was voiced, but it was not what she was accustomed to. It sounded very far away, as though it was echoing through a long hall as he softly spoke. "Hermione."

A single tear ran down her cheek.

"Draco."

**Chapter Forty-Five**

**Intolerable Cruelty**

Hermione reached her hand out to touch the shade, fingers shaking, a solitary tear slipping out of her eye and tracking down her cheek. Just as her fingers were about to make contact with Draco's ashen cheek she withdrew her hand.

She drew a deep breath, closed her eyes and drew herself to her full height, mentally strengthening her resolve as she did so. When she was sure that she was as ready as she was ever going to be, she turned away from the shade and opened her eyes.

"You are ready, then?" the exquisitely beautiful voice asked.

Eyes firmly affixed on the path ahead of her, Hermione nodded. "I am."

"Then I give you my blessing. May fortune smile upon you always and may your destiny be realized." Hermione scarcely believed her ears as the divine being in front of her gave her a great blessing then proceeded to touch her forehead. She felt a lingering heat encircle her head and reached up but felt nothing there.

Crossing to one of the mirrored surfaces present in the room, Hermione looked upon her reflection and gasped. The sun disc on the headdress she had put on earlier was not shining as if it were a real sun. The band round her head glimmered with light.

"For luck," the voice said. "And now it is time for you to leave."

"Thank you," Hermione said breathlessly.

"Do you remember the way you came?"

"Yes."

"Retrace your path and do not falter."

Squaring her shoulders Hermione crossed to the doorway and started to leave. She was just about to pass through when she remembered how she had entered the underworld.

Without turning, she addressed the entity. "Wait."

"Yes?"

"When I reach the place I entered, how will I reach the surface again?"

"To have remembered this now shows foresight, and wisdom," the being commended her. "When you reach this place you will reach both of your hands back to the shade and he will do the rest. On your way."

Nodding, Hermione started walking. With each step she heard a shadow of a step following her. Every bone in her body ached to look back at Draco and embrace him. Somehow she kept her resolve in place as she kept walking. She focused on placing on foot in front of the other and taking note of where she was going, mentally comparing it to her first trip. Slowly, deliberately, she made her way back to the initial chamber that she had fallen from.

Entering the chamber she sighed in relief, and started to turn to face Draco.

She heard a muffled shout of "No!" and stopped moving. Even distorted as it had been, she recognized Draco's voice. It took all her will power to keep from facing the shade behind her. She remembered then that she had to be in the exact place she had fallen from, not the doorway. Sighing at the close call, she stepped forward and looked for a large disturbance in the dust. Finding a large displacement of dirt, knowing it must be where she had landed, she reached her hands back towards the shade. She felt a cool pressure envelope her hands and a lilting melody come from behind her. Closing her eyes she thought only of the hope she had been fighting throughout the journey and finally gave into it. She opened her eyes to find herself ascending through the top of the dome. When she breached the top of it, it disappeared and she fell heavily onto Draco's prone form.

In a wide circle, hands entwined, sat Blaise, Ginny, Selene, Kassandra, Sirius, Aella, Ron and Harry. As soon as they saw her, they broke the circle and breathed a singular sigh of relief. Paying them no mind, she quickly scrambled off Draco and checked him.

He wasn't moving.

Without warning, his eyes opened and he gasped, trying to draw air into his deprived lungs. Elated and exhausted, Hermione collapsed onto his chest. Through a haze she heard her friends calling her name and asking superfluous questions. She could only focus on Draco though. She focused on the now steady breathing under her head. She felt his hand on her hair and raised her head to look at him. When Hermione met his eyes, she found a look so full of emotion she felt smothered.

Reaching a hand to his face, she tentatively stroked his cheek with awe. "Are you real?"

Smiling softly, he reassured her, "Yeah, I'm real." The response caused Hermione to sigh and smile tiredly.

During this exchange, the two spoke so softly that no one else heard them. However, they soon realized that their presence was more look an intrusion on a highly intimate scene. Gently tugging on Blaise's arm, Ginny pulled him away from the scene and back a several yards. The rest of the group followed suit.

Draco's arms snaked around Hermione and hugged her to him. Laying her head against his chest, she breathed in the scent of him that was uniquely Draco. They lay like that for an indeterminable length of time. She couldn't bring herself to let get of him, afraid that he would disappear.

Raising himself on one elbow, Draco lifted Hermione's head to his and placed a simple, chaste kiss on her lips. "You found me. I don't understand how, but you did." He brushed his lips against hers again before pulling back to inspect her face.

Tears rolled silently down her face as she looked at him. Finally, she gathered what little energy she had left and stood, bringing Draco with her. The two of them made their way to the castle, leaning on each other, borrowing strength. The rest of the party followed at a distance.

As Hermione and Draco reached the doors to the Entrance Hall, Hermione felt Draco start to sag and her own strength start to wane. Gathering her remaining energy, Hermione conjured a vision of the Heads' dorms in her mind and mimicked the wand motion of apparition. With a faint pop, the two of them disappeared from view.

Reappearing in the middle of the hall, in front of the painting of the Marauders, Hermione looked up wearily.

"Hermione!" the three painted figures gasped in unison. A barrage of sound issued forth from the painting. A "What happened?" from the young Sirius and a "Are you alright?" from the young James, along with a "Leave them alone," from Lupin, served to almost overwhelm Hermione. She put up her hand and they stopped talking. She gave the password. James opened his mouth to speak again.

"Just…let me in. I'll tell you someday."

Reluctantly, the portrait swung forward to admit them. Hermione had almost gotten Draco through when he stopped their progress, putting a hand on the side of the doorway.

"Oh. And gentlemen?"

It was Lupin who answered, "Yes?"

"Please don't let anyone in for at least 24 hours."

"No problem," James replied.

With that, Draco and Hermione made their way into their dorm. The stumbled to the nearest couch and collapsed onto it. Curling into Draco, Hermione buried her face in his chest and inhaled, reminding herself, one last time, that yes, he really was back.



Ginny was frantic. "Where did they go? How did she do that? Where did they go?"

Blaise wrapped a comforting arm around her and took her wringing hands in his free hand, attempting to calm the frazzled girl. "Gin. Shh. Look at me. They're fine. I'm sure that she just took them up to their rooms," he said in the most soothing voice he could muster.

Stepping forward, Selene and Kassandra flanked Blaise and Ginny. Kassandra addressed the red head, "Ginny, Hermione is exhausted. She performed some powerful magic tonight and it has taken a toll on her body."

Seeing the worrying effect Kassandra's words had on the girl, Selene interrupted, "Not in a harmful way. Hermione just isn't used to the power. It's drained her of her energy. She needs to rest…" she trailed off and looked at Kassandra, who nodded. Looking back at Ginny she finished, saying, "…as do you." So saying, Selene waved a hand over Ginny's face and Ginny immediately slumped into Blaise's firm grip, fast asleep.

"What did you do to her?" Blaise and Ron demanded simultaneously.

"Nothing," Selene answered. "I just put her into a deep, dreamless sleep. Something I had hoped to do for Draco and Hermione," she added thoughtfully. Snapping back to attention, she addressed Blaise firmly. "She needs rest. When she wakes try not to let her fret over Hermione. As for you, you need rest too."

As Blaise left, carrying Ginny's limp form, Harry stepped forward out of general obscurity for the first time that night. Only his pale features belied his outward calm. When he spoke, it was in the calm, detached voice they had come to associate with Lord Voldemort. "Kassandra, do we still need to worry about Hermione?"

The rest of the group looked to Harry, most of them surprised. He shrugged it off and looked back to Kassandra, seeking an answer to his question.

"I honestly do not know. I cannot seem to see anything right now. I think it may be from pure exhaustion. But I will let you know as soon as something changes."

Harry nodded.

"I think we should all go to bed," a firm voice stated. Though Aella had been present throughout the entire night's events, she had been unusually quite. Now, however, she spoke wisely.

"Aella's right. We all need sleep," Sirius said. "And if we're going to keep an eye on Hermione and Draco, which I think we should, then we're definitely going to need our energy." They all nodded in agreement. Saying their goodnights, it was agreed that Selene would go and ascertain whether Draco and Hermione had gone back to their dorms or not. The rest of them went to their beds.



It was dark and she was in the forest. She couldn't remember why. She thought she had been chasing someone, but she couldn't see the person anymore and she couldn't remember why. All she knew was that she was so tired. She hadn't been getting much sleep and there were just so many things going on through her head that she hadn't been able to deal with that she was mentally tired too. So she sat down, in the middle of the forest, to rest.

Just then she heard a twig snapping under someone's foot. Immediately, she sprang up and whipped out her wand, searching for the cause of the sound. Turning in a circle, she saw one shadow that seemed to be darker than all the others. Squinting, she tried to see what it could be. She caught a flash of silver, and in that flash, a spark of recognition. There was also fear, for she knew exactly who it was standing in the forest with her, snapping twigs, trying to sneak up on her.

As she watched, the shadow lifted its wand and let fly a curse. It hit her full in the chest and a slit second later she was flat on her back on the forest floor. Writhing in pain, she cold barely see as the figure emerged from the shadows, cloaked and hooded. She was kicked in the side then released from the curse. She tried desperately to fill her lungs with oxygen, breathing laboriously.

This shadow threw back his hood and Hermione felt a surge of hatred run through her body as the familiar face was paired with own eyes.

"That'll teach you, my little brother, to go gallivanting off and falling in love with a little mudblood bitch," the man said contemptuously.

Hermione felt determined to love the said 'mudblood bitch' even more than she already did at that moment and regret that she would not be able to for much longer. She was repulsed at the idea that this confirmation of her brother's identity had come so late. Still, there was only one thing to be done. She tried to get up. Her brother raised his wand and, with a flash of blinding green…

Hermione awoke gasping for breath, Draco leaning over her, shaking her and calling her name.

"You're awake. Finally. I've been trying to wake you up for at least ten minutes," he looked relieved and confused. "That must have been some dream. What was it about?"

"You," she eventually choked out. "And your brother, Aubrey."

Draco looked shocked, then sighed and gathered her to him. "I had hoped that you would never find out. But I guess that was a little ridiculous to hope for, knowing you. After all, you only brought me back from the dead." Hermione laughed humorlessly. "Did you recognize him?"

"Immediately. He works at Silver. He's a bartender, remember? He was working the first time we went together. I've talked to him so many times while I was there." She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "I never would have pegged him to be so prejudiced."

"No?" Draco raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well," she started, getting defensive, "I never knew he was a Malfoy."

Draco pretended to be hurt. He stabbed himself through the heart with his fist, "Ouch! That one hurt!"

"Oh, stop being so overdramatic." Hermione rolled her eyes at him.

"Anyways. Mother sent me a letter several weeks ago telling me that he had written her, claiming to be a Malfoy, making him the heir to the estate. Now, he knows that you're really a Zabini, but killing me for falling in love with you, while pretending he didn't know that you were really a pureblood? Now, that would be accepted by some of the richest, bigoted purebloods in the wizarding community as a reason for murder. Especially if that makes him the only remaining heir to the Malfoy estate. Because who would want a 'tainted' heir?" he finished with a scathingly sarcastic air.

Hermione sat, speechless. Draco looked at her with concern. When she finally snapped out of her stupor a few seconds later she addressed him with a disturbing calm. "When are we going to hunt him down?"

It took a minute for her words to register within Draco's brain. During those precious seconds, he merely blinked at her.

**A/N:** Wow. Look at this. I really can write and update. I'm shocked. You know what I would love? I would love reviews. I know that this story is on a bunch of alerts, and if even a fraction of the people who get those alerts actually read it, I would really like it if you would leave a review. It can be one word. I don't' care. Well I do, obviously. And I'm rambling. Sorry.


	46. Haunted

**Previously**

Hermione sat, speechless. Draco looked at her with concern. When she finally snapped out of her stupor a few seconds later she addressed him with a disturbing calm. "When are we going to hunt him down?"

It took a minute for her words to register within Draco's brain. During those precious seconds, he merely blinked at her.

**Chapter Forty-Six**

**Haunted**

He woke to the bright sun shining into the room. Rubbing his eyes and stretching, he looked around. They were in Hermione's room. He vaguely remembered carrying her into her room the previous night, but didn't remember anything beyond that. He must have fallen asleep too.

He turned and saw Hermione, still asleep, next to him. Smiling softly to himself, he raised his hand and gently drew it along her jaw. Leaning in, he kissed the fluttering eyelashes. When he pulled back he was looking into very sleep sapphire eyes.

"Morning," he whispered.

She closed her eyes. "Mmph."

Suppressing a chuckle, his hand glided through her hair, the smooth coal strands ran through his fingers, mesmerizing him. No matter how many times he did this, some kind of spell always seemed to engulf him as his fingers whispered through her hair.

She moaned and opened her eyes. They sparkled in the morning light as the seared into his soul. The sad expression in their depths reminded Draco of all he had been through, something he had been able to temporarily forget for the last few hours while he had been dreaming of her. Now though, everything came rushing back. His "brother" (for he refused to acknowledge him as kin without undeniable evidence) murdering him, Hermione saving him, Hermione finding out who had killed him, and…Hermione…begging him to hunt down Aubrey.

The only word that he could find was begging. While at first she had simply stated it as a foregone conclusion, she began to see that he had no plans of revenge – or at least no plans involving her. With this realization, the pleading began.

"Draco, you can't be serious. You can't let him get away with this. And there's no way I'd let you do alone considering what happened the first time around."

He merely kissed the top of her head and told her, "Don't worry so much. I'm not going after him."

"What? Why not?"

Draco merely looked at her, "For exactly the same reasons you just said. Because of what happened the first time around. Besides there's no way I'm going to knowingly put you within 100 yards of him. It's out of the question."

And so it had continued. For nearly three quarters of an hour Hermione pleaded with him, using every tactic that she knew, but she just couldn't break through the Malfoy perseverance. Draco didn't think she would ever give up. When she did though, she just fell silent, eyes sad, and looked at him from across the room where she had been pacing. She held out her arms and he enfolded her into his arms. She buried her head in his chest and murmured, "I just want you to be safe."

He sighed. "I know."

They fell asleep a little in each other's arms a little while later.

He kissed her forehead and smoothed her hair again. "Did you fall back asleep?" he whispered into her hair.

"Nooo," she dragged out the word until it turned into a groan of protest. She opened her eyes again and looked at him. She blinked several times, adjusting to the light in the room. Stretching like the cat that she sometimes was, Hermione arched gracefully and rolled backwards off her bed, seeming to fall off the bed. Draco leaned forward hurriedly leaned over to see her on the balls of her feet and her palms.

"You're just like a cat sometimes," he chuckled.

"What do you mean?" she asked, genuinely confused. She couldn't think of anything she did that was cat-like.

Draco laughed outright this time. "You seriously don't realize that you stretch just like a cat? And the way you fell out of bed just now? Any normal person would have fallen on their ass. You managed to land on your feet."

Looking down self-consciously, Hermione realized he was right and slowly stood. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Not at all," he chuckled again, hooking an arm around her waist and pulling her back to the bed.

"Draaaco," she whined, "I need to get up. I have some apologies to make."

"For saving my life? Apology not accepted."

"Draco, stop that," she said, trying to wrestle free of his firm grip and his lips on her neck. He ignored her. Suddenly he was thrown off the bed and halfway across the room. Hermione stood half-dignified and half-horrified by her own unintentional display of power.

Whispering something incoherently she turned and bolted from the room. Draco made no move to stop her, too stunned by the turn of events to get his bearings back. He distantly heard the sound of the portrait hole slam shut as Hermione ran from him.

µ

Hermione nearly tripped over Selene on her way out of the portrait hole. The girl was sitting in front of the portrait, apparently having a deep conversation with the three figures in the portrait.

"Good Morning, Hermione."

"Selene, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked, perplexed by her friend's presence.

The girl merely shrugged and replied, "Just wanted to see if you wanted to get some breakfast."

"Sure," Hermione answered, suspecting there was more to the story.

The two girls started to walk towards the nearest staircase in silence – two very different kinds of silence. Where Selene was calm and inwardly pensive, Hermione kept shooting nervous glances at her friend, waiting for the Spanish Inquisition to begin. It didn't.

Hermione was surprised when Selene walked right past the bustling Great Hall.

"I thought we were getting breakfast."

"We are," Selene answered. "I thought you might not want to deal with a lot of people yet so I figured we could just get food from the kitchens."

The thought, planning and obvious care in this idea reminded Hermione of one of the many reasons why she was friends with Selene. Smiling serenely to herself, Hermione simply followed her friend through the halls until they reached the painting concealing the kitchens: a bowl of fruit. When Selene didn't lift her hand to tickle the pear, Hermione stiffened, preparing herself for the onslaught of questions that she was sure was about to come.

Selene turned to see Hermione steeling herself, and nearly laughed aloud at the sight. "I've never been to the kitchens before. I don't know how to get in."

All the fight drained out of Hermione and she blushed scarlet. "Oh," she said, as she hurriedly lifted her hand and tickled the giant green pear. A handle appeared and she quickly tugged on it, trying to hide her embarrassment. Selene merely smiled.

The two walked out of the kitchens several minutes later with their hands filled with all kinds of delicious food (not to mention their pockets stuffed with toast since that wouldn't fit in their hands). Grinning broadly, they waltzed down the halls trying not to drop anything and quickly found themselves outside sitting under a tree. After they had eaten some of their haul, Hermione turned to Selene with an appraising stare. It took Selene a few moments to notice for she was halfway into a Danish and was taking her own sweet time enjoying the pastry.

Finally looking up, Selene was startled to see Hermione looking at her so intently, "What? Do I have something on my face?" she asked, lifting her hand to brush at her face.

"No," Hermione answered laughingly.

"Then why are you staring at me?"  
"Because I was just wondering when the questioning was going to start and why it hasn't already."

"Hermione," Selene sighed. "I don't plan on questioning you. If you want to talk, I'm here. But I'm not going to drag information out of you against your will. No matter how much the rest of them might like me to," she finished with a gleam in her eye.

"Thanks," Hermione said softly, meaning it.

The two sat in companionable silence for a while longer before Hermione spoke.

"Selene?"

"Yes?"

"Have you ever done wandless magic?"

Selene looked up to find Hermione peering up at her. "What?"

"Wandless magic. Have you ever done it?" she asked as though wishing she hadn't brought it up.

"You mean by accident?"

"No. I mean, like you do with a wand, but you didn't actually need the wand. Or use an incantation that no one has ever heard of before?"

"Not that I can remember."

"Oh," Hermione said looking slightly desolate.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, it just seems that its something I can do. And I didn't know whether, with our similar status, if it might have happened to you as well."

"No, I can't say that it has. But you must remember, that you possess the spirit of Isis, one of the most powerfully magical deities. That would probably contribute to your already formidable abilities."

Selene spoke so reasonably that Hermione found she was unable to argue. For a few minutes neither of them spoke. When Hermione did, it was so softly that Selene had to lean forward to hear. "I accidentally threw Draco off the bed this morning."

"And you don't know how?"

"No. I couldn't control it and he was pestering me and I just…I don't know. It's like the magic lashed out for me. It was the strangest feeling. But I was out of control, and I don't like that."

Selene pondered that. "I wonder if there's a way you can reign it in."

"I don't know, but I hope so. Because if I get angry sometime and there are people around, I don't know what will happen."

**A/N:** Happy New Year! I didn't think I'd get this out for New Year's, but I did. Even though its really really short. I hope to update more frequently, but we'll just see. As always, I appreciate comments. Frequently those are what get me writing again. Thanks a bunch.

Kat.


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